Praetorians
by Theodore Hawkwood
Summary: Ace forms the Combat Rescue Unit to bolster G.I. Joe’s Search and Rescue capability and shortly after forming this unit, they are tested by the rise of a new foe known as the Praetorians...Crossover with the Net.
1. Rebirth of the Praetorians

Rebirth of the Praetorians

Disclaimer: I don't own the Net, the Guardian, nor do I own G.I. Joe or the Misfitverse. The characters of the G.I. Joe Tactical Rescue Unit are my creation. This is based off the alternate ending of the Guardian, where Ben Randall survived. In this reality he was promoted to Master Chief.

Further Author's Note: This fic takes place at the same time as my X-men Evolution fic: Secret Agent Forge and shortly after my fic Aftermath.

Summary: Ace forms the Combat Rescue Unit to bolster G.I. Joe's Search and Rescue capability and shortly after forming this unit, they are tested by the rise of a new foe known as the Praetorians...

---

G.I. Joe Combat Rescue Unit Roster

Col. Brad 'Ace' Armbuster, USAF - CO

ASTCM (NAC/SAR) Benjamin Randall, USCG - NCOIC

CPT Martin Samuel Travis, USAF - Combat Rescue Officer

Master Sergeant Sammy Chong, USAF - PJ/First Sergeant

Technical Sergeant Jake Koester, USAF - PJ

Staff Sergeant Harold 'Roldie' Cho, USAF - PJ

Senior Airman Kumar Patel, USAF - PJ

Senior Airman 'Hightower' Occam, USAF - PJ

Senior Airman Artie Wayland, USAF - PJ

Technical Sergeant Darryl Aiden, USAF - CCT

Staff Sergeant Carl 'Drape' Draper, USAF - CCT

Senior Airman George Strickland, USAF - CCT

---

"Attention on deck!" Master Chief Aviation Survival Technican (NAC/SAR) Ben Randall bellowed into the room. The ten men sitting in the rec. room stood to attention as Colonel Bradley Armbuster, callsign 'Ace' walked into the room.

They were part of a newly formed detachment from the US Air Force's Special Tactics branch, specialists in search and rescue and combat control.

"Good morning gentlemen." Ace said, "I understand there are a few questions as to why each of you is here. I know you've been training with one another for a least six weeks here at the Pit and some of you have served with one another or trained alongside each other before. You are part of an initiative to boost our unit's Combat Search and Rescue ability. We will be sending you guys in detachments over the next few weeks for training and support of various G.I. Joe operations out in the field."

"Master Chief Randall will be coordinating your various missions from our SAR Control Center along with myself and Master Sergeant Chong." Ace said, "You've all trained with each other for almost six weeks. We can deploy you in either detachments or as a whole group."

"See this globe." Randall said, pointing at the map in the briefing room, "This is your area of responsibility. As the Colonel says you guys can be deployed forward or in support of different operations for this unit. Most of you come from a Search and Rescue background, with the exception of one or two of the combat controllers. But our priority is the lives of survivors of any disaster. Gentlemen make no mistake. It is our intention to send you into harm's way for one purpose: So Others May Live."

"Your training will start immediately. Draper, Strickland, Patel and Koester. You four are headed to SOCCENT Airbase in Qatar to assist operations in the area. Think of it as getting your feet wet." Randall continued. "The remaining four of you will stay here on ready-five status..."

---

Combat Search and Rescue Control Center, the Pit: "Where are Draper, Strickland, Patel and Koester now?" Ace asked.

"They're at SOCCENT Airbase, Qatar." Randall replied, "They've got a training mission in the area with Deep Six, Torpedo, Wetsuit, Falcon, Leatherneck, and Gung Ho."

"Have them on alert, there's some new intelligence I got regarding possible COBRA activity off the Iranian coast." Ace replied.

"Already done, sir." Randall replied, "I got wind of that report of that COBRA transmission, about launching a ship with a hold full of Heartless at the Iranian coastline."

"Sir!" Senior Airman Ahmed said as he ran into the CSAR Control Area.

"What is it?" Ace said as he turned.

"Latest transmission. Merchant Vessel Heidelberg Star is to be commandeered for Operation Pinafore. And there's one more puzzling thing, a pi symbol..." Ahmed said.

"Get the CSAR asset in the area online, now." Ace began.

"Yes sir. Already on that. Diverting Stingray 3-0 to tasking." Randall replied.

Meanwhile Ahmed had headed towards the Pit's Intelligence Section where he'd filed the report of the strange 'pi' symbol.

Scarlet stopped him in the hallway. "Good job Airman Ahmed."

"Sergeant?" Ahmed said.

"We ran a trace on that pi symbol you indicated in your report. It was linked to a very promising lead." Scarlet replied, "It was linked to a series of computer occurrences at the turn of the century and a computer programmer by the name of Angela Bennett was able to bring them down. But evidently they seem to have resurfaced. Congratulations Airman Ahmed, your find just helped a major operation that's underway..."

---

SOCCENT Airbase, Qatar. 0800 Local Time: "What time is it back in Utah?" Senior Airman Kumar Patel asked as he and Staff Sergeant Carl Draper were sitting at

"I'm not a hundred percent sure, I think it's still midnight." Draper replied as he took a long swallow of water, "I'm gonna see if I can't call my folks in a few hours."

"Yeah, my family still hasn't moved in 100%." Patel said, "Vanessa wasn't too thrilled knowing that I was going bye bye when we haven't even unpacked everything yet."

"Welcome aboard guys." Deep Six said, as he sat down at the table where the four Air Force Special Tactics men were sitting.

"When'd you get married?" Draper asked Patel.

"We got married shortly after Indoc." Patel said, "I'd been seeing Vanessa since we were both in college."

"No shit, another college kid?" Draper asked.

"Yeah." Patel replied.

"Where did you go to school?" Draper asked.

"University of Pennsylvania. You?" Patel asked.

"Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL." Draper replied, "I studied aeronautical science to be an air traffic controller."

"What made you come into the service?" Deep Six asked.

Torpedo came running over to the table just then. "What's up boss?" Deep Six asked.

"Get the team together pronto." Torpedo said, "We've got a mission coming up. I'll brief you guys as soon as I get out of the T.O.C. (Tactical Operations Center). Get everything ready to go."

"I'll go grab the codes." Draper said as he got out of his seat and headed to the communications tent."

"Get your breakfast down first. You're no good to us if you're down with hypoglycemia mid mission." Torpedo said.

"He heard about the incident from Indoc huh?" Patel laughed.

"Fuck you." Draper said with a half-smile.

"Let's here this."Torpedo said.

"Draper didn't have anything to eat before we had a timed swim." Kumar began.

"Shut up." Draper said.

Acting as if he hadn't heard Kumar continued, "He completed the swim and came out of the water shaking. He made it two steps before he fainted right on top of our lead instructor..."

Laughter at Draper's expense filled the table.

"Ha ha ha." Draper said sarcastically.

---

Torpedo walked into the Tactical Operation's Center where Colonel James Fenwick, USMC was waiting for him. "Some more intel on your latest assignment."

"What is that sir?" Torpedo asked.

"Well, warrant officer, some higher ups informed me some new terror group called the Praetorians has reared its ugly head once more, regarding the Heidelberg Star. An organization called CIC sent one of its field agents here to assist you guys with dealing with the Preatorians." Fenwick replied.

"When's he getting here?" Torpedo asked.

"She has already arrived." Fenwick said as a Marine ushered in a dark haired woman in her late twenties or early thirties wearing a Northwestern University sweater and jeans, "She was doing some computer work at one of our bases in Kuwait when we heard about this terrorist group. I arranged to fly her here."

"Torpedo I assume?" The woman said as she put her hand out.

At Torpedo's quizzical look Fenwick added, "I briefed her about you guys on the satcom before she got here."

"This is Angela Bennett, an agent of the CIC, some cyberspace crimes agency." Fenwick added, "I thought she'd be an added help for the mission."

"Right." Torpedo said as he took her towards the tent where the team was gathering to brief. They passed by Staff Sergeant Carl Draper who was on his way to sign for the codes in the back area of the TOC.

Draper then noticed a brunette woman in jeans and a sweater headed their way at about the same time she noticed him. She hadn't changed one bit since he last saw her.

Angela was taken aback as she noticed one of the cluster of airmen sitting around a planning table. His dark hair had grown out just a bit more than when she'd last seen him, his face having a little less of that eager youthfulness about it, but there was no mistaking the man talking to the others. He saw her at about the same time.

"Sergeant Draper, Miss Bennett, do you two know each other?" Torpedo asked.

"Yes." Angela Bennett said.

"No." Draper replied coldly.

Torpedo was sure to file that incident away in his head, making a mental note to talk to Draper before they got on the mission.

---

Torpedo stopped Draper as he was loading his radios into various bags, "What was that earlier?"

"Nothing that will affect the mission sir." Draper replied.

"Are you sure?" the SEAL asked.

"I'm sure." Draper replied.

"What's the history, as I could see you didn't exactly react well when you saw Miss Bennett. Something I should know about?"

"Nothing more than a youthful indiscretion." Draper replied.

Torpedo headed off, not one hundred percent convinced that Draper was telling the truth.

---

Angela Bennett took the center position in the briefing tent where the G.I. Joe unit of Marines, SEALs and four Air Force special tactics men were sitting. She glanced quickly at Carl's face. No real expression was there, just a flat neutrality.

"The Praetorians are a terrorist organization with a wide reaching area of influence." Angela began, "Ranging from illegal organ harvesting to drug trafficking. Their modus operandi deals largely with cyber crime and through proxy agents that often have no idea who they really are working for. They are secretive and will resort to any means necessary to maintain their secrecy. That included erasing my identity and trying to kill me on numerous occasions."

"What interest do they have in this ship in particular?" Draper asked.

"The Heidelberg Star, like many newer freighters has a computer navigation and autopilot system." Angela said, "This particular model has a remote internet connection enabling its electronic charts to be updated almost instantaneously. I believe that is how the Praetorians hijacked the vessel's autopilot and simultaneously jammed its communications."

"That's where we come in." Torpedo began, "We'll board the Heidelberg Star using an MH-60 "Pave-Hawk" helicopter by fast rope. After we secure the bridge, engineering and sweep the holds we will steer the vessel away from Iranian territorial waters where her present course places her."

"Opposing forces?" Gung Ho asked.

"According to Intel Reports there is a strong possibility there may be COBRA Crimson Guard operatives onboard." Torpedo said, "Or it may just be that they put the crew in this helpless position and are using them to provoke the Iranians into violence. There have been intelligence reports of COBRA's Operation Pinafore. Cargo ships are to be filled with Heartless and launched towards Iranian shores..."

"Heartless?" Angela asked.

"Beings without hearts." Torpedo replied, "They seek the hearts of other beings and if you lose your heart to them, you turn into a Heartless. Check your PDA it should be on your brief."

"OK." Angela said, feeling somewhat flustered.

"Right. The Heidelberg Star is 294 meters long and is a Panamax freighter with four large cargo holds. She is registered under a Danish flag and is under the Maersk group. The Master is Peter Rosenthal..." Torpedo said.

"The bridge team will consist of myself, Leatherneck, Draper and Patel. Miss Bennett since the computer terminal is located near the bridge, you'll be with us." Torpedo said, "Falcon, you, Gung Ho, Strickland, Koester, Deep Six and Wet Suit will search the main deck area. Deep Six, you, Wet Suit and Koester will then break off and secure engineering secure engineering. Falcon you take Gung Ho and Strickland and sweep every space on the ship."

Torpedo turned to Angela, "Are you armed?"

"Yes. I have a Sig P226 and three magazines." Angela replied.

"You stay close to us. Patel, keep an eye on her." Torpedo said, "Move out in twenty minutes..."

---

"What was that for?" Angela asked Draper when they were alone.

"What was what for?" Draper said as he continued packing magazines into his pouches, "Do you have any clue what I went through after you left? Especially when Air Force Office of Special Investigations was banging down my door an hour later questioning me about Elizabeth Marx."

"If you even bothered to read about how I lost my identity...I thought my letter explained everything." Angela replied.

"You really expected me to believe that? You really expected OSI to believe that? I'm lucky I wasn't thrown out of the Air Force." Draper replied.

"You never tried looking me up afterward?" Angela replied.

What Angela didn't know was that Draper had her letter in a plastic ziploc in the cargo pocket next to his left thigh. She didn't know many nights since she left he had read that letter and it had served him well through hard times as a source of strength.

"I saw you graduate..." Angela said, "I watched you when you earned your scarlet beret..."

Draper stopped for a moment, blinked his eyes, as he regarded the lovely brunette before him. Emotions raged inside him, anger at her deception, sorrow at having broken off contact, the connection and love he still felt from stolen moments of intimacy.

"I've got a lot of work to do." Draper said as he headed off to the communications tent to get his radios and codes.

"Can you promise we'll talk?" Angela said.

"If you're still here after we're done with the mission." Draper replied. _I'm just a fool...a fool in love with you. _

Angela regarded Draper's retreating form. Part of her wanted to hit him upside the head for that comment. Another part of her really missed seeing him after all this time. And still another part of her was plain terrified. Sliding down a rope on a helicopter was not something she had ever trained to do before.

---

Draper did one of his two pre-combat rituals as he headed for the bird. First he checked the knife he jokingly called his 'Challah' on his battle rattle. At Kumar's curious look, "Checking to see if my _challah _is nice and sharp."

"Hey Draper." Koester said, "Gonna circumcise some COBRAs with that?"

"A _challah's _a bread knife, shithead." Draper replied.

"Hey, I didn't know, I'm not Jewish." Koester said.

"No one's prefect." Draper replied.

Draper's comment caused a couple chuckles from Kumar as the group boarded the helicopter. Kumar couldn't help but notice Draper's stony expression when the civilian, Angela Bennett boarded with them, sandwiched between him and Draper.

The helicopter lifted high into the air. Angela wasn't the biggest fan of flying by any stretch of the imagination and the way this hot-shot Air Force Special Tactics pilot was flying low over the South Arabian Gulf at the aircraft's top speed with buffeting winds wasn't helping her already frayed nerves. She heard, despite the earplugs, Draper was singing.

"Hava nagila. Hava nagila. Hava nagila ve nis'mecha." Draper started.

Strickland noticed Angela's nervous face and quizzical look at Draper's singing, "That's just one of his weird little rituals. He'll sing that Jewish celebration song every flight."

"Heads up! Merchant Vessel Heidelberg Star dead ahead."

After circling a few times to determine enemy presence the crew chiefs kicked the two ropes over the side. Leatherneck went down one rope and Falcon down the other. Draper followed right after Leatherneck, still singing verses of the Jewish celebration song. Wet Suit went down the other end. Angela grabbed the rope with the unfamiliar leather gloves and slid down until she hit the steel deck. She felt a strong arm drag her away from the rope, "Watch out."

Thud! Kumar landed heavily on the deck and Torpedo followed him. After they all deployed the teams moved out to their respective locations.

As they reached the bridge Torpedo nodded and Leatherneck used his shotgun to breach the door.

The team moved onto the bridge, finding nothing but two dead bodies of the master and first mate. The controls on the bridge were smashed thoroughly.

"Room secure. Bennett, do your stuff." Torpedo said.

Angela headed over to the computer room in the chart house and started to punch away at the keyboards. Draper got on the radio, "Got comms with SOCCENT and the Pit online. We have two Apache gunships for our control."

"How long until we reach Iranian territorial waters at our current speed?" Torpedo asked.

"We have about five hours. So if we can't get control back online before dawn, we're Guests of the Ayatollah." Angela said, "Damn it...it looks like the Praetorians really encrypted this net."

"How long will it take you to untangle all this?" Torpedo asked.

"I'm no expert, but maybe about six hours." Angela said.

"You know we don't have that kind of time." Torpedo said.

"Look. If I screw this hack up who knows what nasty surprises the Praetorians put on this thing." Angela replied as she started to punch away at keys.

"Sweep Team this is Bridge. Status?" Leatherneck said on his interteam radio.

---

Wet Suit let a Crimson Guard trooper who appeared around the corner have it with a burst of fire from his MP5 sub machinegun.

"Torpedo this is Falcon. Holds One and Two swept. In process of sweeping Hold Three. So far we've neutralized three hostiles in Hold Two and one in Hold Three. Crimson Guard regulars it looks like and..." Falcon replied as a bullet smacked past his head.

Gung Ho let the Crimson Guard regular have it with a burst of buckshot from his Benelli 1012 shotgun.

More gunfire sounded as Wet Suit, Deep Six and Koester entered the last hold, fighting it out with another two COBRAs.

"Hold Four Secure!" Wet Suit shouted, "Heading for engineering..."

"Roger!" Falcon said and relayed the information to his team leader.

"LT?" Strickland said, "You might want to take a look at this."

Strickland was pointing at the Crimson Guard regular whom Gung Ho had practically decapitated with his shotgun.

"He looks like he was gonna trigger something." The CCT said.

"It doesn't look like any IED I've seen yet." Falcon said as he glanced at a remote control lever in the hand of the dead Crimson Guard.

There were large cargo containers in each of the holds with electro-mechanical locks attached to them. From the containers the sound of movement, of unnatural screeching and chittering could be heard.

"Strickland, check the container out. Gung Ho, cover him." Falcon ordered.

Strickland pulled the cargo container open slowly with one hand, his side arm out and aimed at the crack. Standing on the other side was a large contingent of creatures about four feet tall with inky black skin, antennae, clawed hands and glowing yellow eyes.

"Fuck!" Strickland shouted as he fired off several rounds from his 9mm handgun and slammed the door closed. Several Shadow Heartless had escaped into the room. Gung Ho let two of them have it with bursts from his shotgun and Strickland recovered quickly, shooting down another Heartless.

"What was that?" Torpedo's voice echoed on Falcon's radio.

"Torpedo. All the cargo containers in the hold are full of Heartless..." Falcon said. "We accidentally released six of them. We've killed three but the others beat feet out of the room."

"Don't open any more containers. Keep an eye out for any more of those Heartless." Torpedo said.

"Roger." Falcon said.

---

Deep Six kicked open the door to Engineering and Wetsuit and . Koester raced down the ladder.

The team searched their way through the engineering plant. Aside from the occasional spatter of blood the room was eerily silent. Lights flickered on and off.

"Looks like they jammed the rudder for our present course and speed." Deep Six said and passed the information to Torpedo.

"Unnngghhh." Came a groan.

Koester turned to see a man in the blood smeared coveralls of the chief engineer. "Hey...it's OK we're here to help."

"Too late to help...Ungh...Destroy the ship...Aagh..." The Engineer screamed.

Koester bent down at the man's side. He checked the airway, he was breathing and he was bleeding badly at his abdomen. Blood was seeping sluggishly from behind intestines that were clutched in his hands.

"I've got you man. You'll be fine..." Koester said as he laid the engineer on his back. He took a dressing and wet it with one bag of IV fluid, placing it onto the guts in a grotesque taco before he tied the dressing off.

He started an IV on the man. "Hey we've got a case-evac down here..."

Wet Suit passed the news to Leatherneck and Torpedo on the bridge.

---

"Draper." Torpedo said, "Let the Pit know on the Satcom."

"Roger." Draper said, "Guardian Angel this is Manta One. Over..."

"Manta One, go ahead." said the comms watch at the CSAR Control Center.

"We have one case-evac. He's the engineer onboard the Heidelberg Star. Suffering one evisceration. So far we've encountered five tangos. Crimson Guard Regulars..." Draper said.

"Manta One this is Guardian Angel. Negative your request. Area's too hot. We have reports of an Iranian Mod Kaman PTG operating in your vicinity. We've received indications that it's powered up its anti-aircraft systems. Additionally we have reports of an IRGCN Surface Action Group of two Tir Torpedo boats and four Boghammar gunboats undergoing an ammo onload at Bandar Abbas."

"Torpedo. Sky Raider Lead just radioed me. They've only got a couple hours of flying time before they gotta divert." Draper said.

"Draper...we might be needing those gunships. Either to scuttle this tub or to fight the Iranians off." Torpedo said.

"No need to tell me twice boss." Draper replied, "I'm getting on the air to see if I can't divert a tanker to us..."

"Good. Let me know the status when you get it." Torpedo said.

"Hey." Leatherneck said, "I'm getting reports of a laptop computer found near one of the dead Crimson Guards.

"Right. Get it up here and see if Miss Bennett can't see what our friends were up to." Torpedo said.

"Sweep Team this is Leatherneck. Bring that computer up topside." Leatherneck began.

"Roger. Enroute..." Falcon said.

"Fucking asshole." Draper said.

"Hey, Draper calm down." Torpedo said.

"The jackass controller at SOCCENT isn't willing to release Romeo 112 to my control. She's got enough gas to refuel both of Sky Raider flight." Draper replied.

"Keep trying." Torpedo said.

"I've found something on the computer. It's a private log of some sort. There's a reference to some character named Zartan...Does that mean anything to you guys?" Angela asked.

"Zartan. He's a shapeshifter who works for COBRA. The same ass clowns that are apparently colluding with your Praetorian buddies." Leatherneck replied.

"Did it say anything else?" Torpedo asked.

"Only that there were fears of COBRA operating in this area..." Angela replied, "Other than that nothing else I can access for now."

---

A gray Crown Victoria was parked overlooking a cliff. Its sole occupant was a man with wavy dark hair and intense dark eyes. His face was a handsome sort of face with a sinister air to it.

The computer screen in his vehicle read: "Is the Diversion in place?"

"Yes." Sean Trelawney typed the reply, "Your man Zartan is certainly adept at subterfuge."

"It's his stock and trade." his COBRA contact replied, "What of your hacking into the security system?"

"In progress. I should have access in less than an hour and your virus will be uploaded into the system." Trelawney replied.

"Good. There is much useful data the Jugglers have hidden away in the installation's mainframe. And many links to our own research and programs that cannot be allowed to be released to the world. This installation has outlived its usefulness." The reply flashed across Trelawney's screen.

"Once your virus is uploaded all its data will be erased and will be copied to a designated hard drive I have in my possession. Once you have the assessed fee, it will be yours." Trelawney replied.

"Good. Inform me when you have uploaded your virus." the COBRA contact replied.

Seam Trelawney scratched at the scar on the left side of his face, just below his left ear and running down to his jaw. This had happened after the Praetorian Headquarters had been destroyed by one Angela Bennett and Jacob "Sorcerer" Resh. He was tempted to ask for the deaths of both individuals, but decided that killing them was to be his pleasure and his alone. Especially Angela Bennett...

---

"I cracked into the laptop's hard drive." Angela said. "It seems that these COBRA regulars were to release all the Heartless in the cargo containers inside the hold when the ship ran aground on the Iranian coastline or when the ship was destroyed, whichever comes first."

"Go on." Torpedo said.

"At the same time a news report was to be released that the crew of the Heidelberg Star had been attacked by the Iranians and killed to the last man. But I can't quite figure out what either the Praetorians or COBRA would stand to gain from this." Angela said, "It's almost as if this wasn't really an important mission."

"I agree sir." Draper said, "I radioed the Pit with the biometric data of the COBRAs we killed. It seemed that they weren't exactly top of the line Crimson Guard recruits."

"A ruse. I get it. But a ruse for what we'll have to find out later." Torpedo said.

"I've gotten Romeo 112 under my control. She's now refueling Sky Raider lead...and not a moment too soon. We've got that Iranian Surface Action Group underway and heading right for us. Their ETA should be within the next two hours."

"This doesn't add up." Angela said, "Bottom of the barrel operatives. A cargo hold of Heartless. And a scheme that seems doomed to failure."

"I'm afraid we'll have to figure that one out later on..." Torpedo said, and passed a radio call, "Stay on the alert for Zartan but don't actively seek him out. Be prepared to get off this ship in a hurry."

---

To Be Continued...

Up Next: The team faces the Iranians and discovers that the Heidelberg Star was really a feint for the Praetorians' true target: Area 51.


	2. Feint and Thrust

Feint and Thrust

Disclaimer: Same as before. This takes place at the same time as my Misfitverse fic Secret Agent Forge. (Misfitverse refers to Red Witch's AU verse where G.I. Joe is crossed over with the X-men Evolution Universe.)

---

"How are you feeling?" Draper said as he turned to Angela when he noticed she seemed worried.

"Good considering we're either gonna get killed by these Heartless things, shot up by the Iranians or worse..." Angela replied.

"Don't worry about the Iranians. They start to close us I've got some US Army Apaches overhead waiting to help them keep some penciled in appointments with Allah.." Draper replied.

Torpedo said, "Any further news?"

"Nothing so far. I've gotten more access to their deck log." Angela said, "It looks like the Praetorians jammed their communication system."

"Have you tried repairing it?" Torpedo asked Draper.

"I've got the Bridge to Bridge radio back together. Unfortunately it'll receive but won't transmit." Draper replied.

"Merchant Vessel Heidelberg Star..." came the thickly accented voice, an Iranian accented voice, "You are trespassing into Iranian territorial waters. Alter course immediately..."

"What!? We're seventeen miles off their coast!" Angela protested.

"We've crossed the Black Line." Torpedo said.

"What's the Black Line?" Angela asked.

"What the Iranians claim as their coastal waters, which obviously aren't their coastal waters." Torpedo said.

"This is Sky Raider Lead. I have visuals of two Iranian torpedo boats headed towards your position. They're seven miles out...observing them opening their torpedo tubes."

"Open fire." Draper said over his radio.

The two Apaches raced in just over the top of the Heidelberg Star, firing their Hellfire missiles. Two massive explosions appeared on the sea as the Iranian boats were blown apart.

It was just then that two Boghammar patrol boats attacked. Coming in from the north east they raced in, firing heavy machineguns and rockets at the Heidelberg Star.

Several clanks and clatters sounded as bullets tore into the freighter's hull. Kumar shoved Angela down as bullets tore into the bridge.

One of the Apaches turned its chain gun on the Iranian boats and opened fire. Several 30 mm rounds blazed. One Boghammar exploded in a bright flash, several streaks of light shooting into the air as ammunition cooked off. The other Boghammar turned outbound, on fire with half its crew dead.

Two more Boghammars raced in from another direction. Each boat took a side of the Heidelberg Star, raking it with gunfire.

"Evacuating engineering with the wounded Engineer." Wet Suit said, "We've got massive flooding."

An Apache engaged the Boghammars with its chain-gun. The Iranian small boat continued on its course, smoke trailing from its engines as the 30mm rounds killed its crew.

"Manta One this is Sky Raider Lead. You guys are clear. I've got three Iranian boats destroyed with a fourth running for all its worth."

"We're not out of the woods yet guys." Torpedo said, "Draper, call our evac bird, it's time to bug off this thing."

"Roger sir." Draper said.

"Stingray 3-0 this is Manta One. Request evacuation at my coordinates." Draper passed.

"This is Stingray 3-0. Inbound. ETA thirty minutes."

"Draper. Call a fire mission away. We still have holds full of Heartless that we can't let get away." Torpedo said.

"Sky Raider Lead. Request for fire mission. Scuttle the Heidelberg Star after we're evacuated." Draper said.

"No can do. Higher Command won't let us scuttle the boat. It might prompt an international incident..." Sky Raider Lead said.

"We have to destroy it." Draper said.

"Lord knows, I agree. But we have our orders." Sky Raider Lead said, "Sky Raider Out."

"Negative on the destruction mission." Draper said.

"If the Pentagon knows how dangerous these Heartless are, why aren't they destroying the ship?" Angela asked.

"I don't know." Torpedo said as the MH60 Pave Hawk flew low and fast over the sea towards the team's position.

"Torpedo. This is Duke. We need you guys back at the Pit on the double. We're using the Mass Device to teleport you to the Pit..." Duke said.

---

"Master Chief..." said a communication tech from the CSAR Control Center, "We have a downed helicopter near Area 51."

"Nearest CSAR Asset is Moss 101." Randall said, "Ask if we can divert the bird to help."

"Already on it Master Chief." the communications tech said, and after a pause he said, "We're cleared."

Master Chief took hold of the mike and said, "Gentlemen. I'm diverting you to a crash site near the installation known as Area 51. Real life mission. We had a bird crash on the perimeter and we have an evacuation request..."

"Roger. Enroute." Aiden said on the radio as Moss 101 re-routed towards Area 51.

---

"Occam, Wayland, listen up!" Technical Sergeant Aiden said into the back cabin of the Pave Hawk helicopter.

"We've got a downed helicopter, just north of the Area 51 perimeter." Aiden said.

"You sure they ain't aliens Sergeant?" Wayland said in his New York accent.

"Shut up Brooklyn, this is serious." Aiden replied.

"I'm from Manhattan Sergeant!" Wayland replied.

"Whatever Brooklyn!" Aiden said, "A UH60 went down about half an hour ago. No contact was established with the crew since the mayday report came in. We know there were four souls onboard before she crashed into this ravine."

Aiden pointed at a location on the map. "It's a dry riverbed, with an intermittent stream running through it. It's too narrow to land in, so we're being inserted half a click west. The bird will be overhead and will lower a Stokes for the ambulatory patients."

The Pave Hawk came to a flare up and then hovered. The crew chief kicked a large nylon rope out of the door. Aiden went down first, followed quickly by Wayland. Wayland lingered a moment too long because when he looked up he saw Occam's size twelve and a half Oakley Special Forces boot inches from his head.

"Watch it Brooklyn!" Aiden shouted as Wayland dodged being flattened by the 225 lb. African American directly above him.

The team moved through the ravine before reaching the wreck site. A plume of smoke rose from the rotor area and a puddle of burning fuel smoldered into the dirt. The US Army Black Hawk helicopter lay on it's side. One end of the nose of the bird was smashed into the dirt.

Already Aiden was setting up communications, "Moss 101, this is Bloodhound 1. Comms check, over."

"Bloodhound 1, read you loud and clear..."

Wayland dropped to one knee, opening the medical bag as Occam attacked the closed helicopter door with a crash axe. Already he could smell the pungent aroma of burned flesh. At least one person in the bird had burned up. Possibly all of them.

Occam managed to smash his way into the hull of the bird. The pilot was smashed against the instrument panel. His charred face was frozen in an expression of permanent terror. Both of the crew chiefs were lying on the far side of the bird, blood smearing their fatigues.

"Are you guys alright?" Occam asked.

A moan was the only answer.

"Wayland! I've got two patients. Give me a hand..." Occam said.

"Oc, we might kill these two carrying them." Wayland replied.

"This bird catches fire and explodes it'll kill them either way. Give me a hand." Occam replied.

Occam and Wayland hauled the two crew chiefs out and laid them on the ground on their backs.

"I've got a sucking chest wound on this one." Wayland said as the female crew chief groaned, her breathing labored. He turned her on one side, finding an exit wound about the size of a quarter.

Wayland tore open the crew chief's flight suit, modesty going out the window. He noticed a hole about half the diameter of a dime just above her left breast. He took a bandage from his aid bag. A circular bandage with a rubber tube. He pasted it over the chest wound so it would allow for air and fluid drainage. He turned her on her side to paste another bandage over the exit wound to seal the wound off.

"You're gonna be alright..." Wayland said as he turned her on her injured side to relieve the pressure off her good lung.

"You have to get us out of here..." she groaned as she regained consciousness. Meanwhile Occam was fitting the male crew chief with a c-collar to stabilize his spine.

"We've got the MedEvac Bird overhead right now." Wayland said. And over his inter-team radio he spoke to Aiden, "Dare, we need a hoist..."

Aiden gave them a thumbs up from higher up in the ravine and the bird flew overhead. A hoist was lowered down.

Wayland gently placed the first crew chief onto the hoist. He signaled to the crew chief to raise the hoist as Occam finished getting his patient ready to travel.

"Holy fuck!" Wayland shouted as he saw a Neoshadow Heartless bounding towards the stretcher.

Without hesitating Wayland raised his GAU-5 (an Air Force M4 carbine) and squeezed the trigger five times, hitting the creature in the stomach, the chest twice, and the center of its blank face twice, obliterating its brain.

"First victim away." Wayland shouted.

Occam got his victim onto the hoist and the helicopter was in mid-lift when two Air Soldier and two Air Pirate Heartless flew at the helo.

One of the gunners opened up with the door mounted machine gun. An Air Soldier fell, riddled with holes, to the ground.

Another Air Soldier flew under the bird, severing the cable and the two Air Pirates lifted off towards Area 51 with their latest victim. A glowing heart shape could be seen from the stretcher as the male crew chief started to transform into an Air Soldier.

"Where the fuck are they going!?" Wayland shouted as Moss 101 picked up speed.

Aiden came down the hill, radio on his back. A very irate expression crossed his face. "Numb nut fucktard." Aiden groaned.

"What's going on Sergeant?" Wayland asked.

"Moss 101's not coming back. They're saying the area's too hot. We'll have to hoof it to Area 51." Aiden said.

"What about calling the Pit?" Wayland asked.

"Not going to work." Aiden said. "Right when I tried comms with the Pit, I only got static."

"Great." Wayland said as he packed his remaining medical kit and stuffed it in his ruck.

"We gotta hoof it Brookyln." Aiden said.

"Like I said, Sergeant, I'm from Manhattan." Wayland replied.

"Like _I_ said, your name's Brooklyn..." Aiden said, "You're on point, by the way."

Wayland took point after changing his GAU-5 magazine for a fresh mag. Aiden was behind him and Occam was bringing up the rear as they headed towards Area-51.

---

"How did we get all the way here from Qatar?" Angela asked.

"It's classified." Draper replied.

"I do have Top Secret Clearance." Angela replied.

"It's called the Mass Device." Torpedo answered, "It enables us to teleport anywhere in the world. Our secret mutant team, the Misfits, use it."

"Wait a second." Angela said, "I've heard of these Misfits. They were former assistants of Magneto until he abandoned them..."

"How do you know about them?" Torpedo asked.

"CIC has had some dealings in Bayville. Especially concerning one young Webber Torque and his dealings at the Xavier Institute...That was a case report my supervisor found most interesting(1)." Angela replied.

"It certainly was a case of Electric Dreams." Wet Suit replied rolling his eyes as the team piled into a briefing room. Standing in front of them was Sergeant Allison Fairborn, otherwise known as Lady Jaye.

Master Sergeant Sammy Chong stood in the room as well. "Let's get this debrief knocked out." Chong said.

Manning a laptop computer in the front of the room was Senior Airman Faisal Ahmed. The baby faced Air Force Airman was still somewhat flush with the self-effacing congratulations that the Pit's senior leadership had given him for his notice about the pi symbol and the Praetorians.

As soon as the group was seated, Torpedo began the debrief, "We received a mission from the Pit's CSAR Control Center. I got the team ready to go board the 294 meter long Heidelberg Star, a Danish registered freighter."

"We received additional support from the FBI's CIC in the form of one Agent Angela Bennett." Falcon added, "That delayed our departure by almost half an hour."

"I can account for that." Lady Jaye replied, "It was because we intercepted an e-mail from an unidentified source regarding your intended boarding. A pi symbol discovered on the message indicated a link with a cyber terrorist group known as the Praetorians. Agent Bennett has had extensive experience with the Praetorians."

"What exactly makes her so qualified to delay a mission?" Falcon said.

Draper looked like he was going to kill the Green Beret lieutenant. Falcon noticed Draper's glare.

"Her identity and any record of her existence was erased by the Praetorians in the year 1998." Lady Jaye replied.

"That's right." Angela said, looking daggers at the Green Beret lieutenant, "I had to avoid the law and the Praetorians at the same time when they replaced my identity with that of Elizabeth Marx, a known computer terrorist."

"Anyway," Torpedo added, "The half hour we waited was worth it, for Miss Bennett was able to hack into the otherwise locked computer system onboard the Heidelberg Star. And she uncovered some critical data on the captured COBRA laptop."

"What data?" Falcon asked.

"We discovered that COBRA had sent half a dozen Crimson Guard recruits, their biometrics data is included in the team's after action report by the way. They were led by a fellow called Zartan, whom despite thorough searching was not found." Angela replied, "Let's not forget that..."

Angela's Blackberry began to go off. "Excuse me...I have to take this call. It's work related."

Lady Jaye nodded and Angela went out of the room to answer her phone.

Falcon gave a disapproving scowl and Draper scowled at him in reply. Kumar could feel the heat in the room. Draper was obviously close to dealing Falcon a few painfully shattering blows about how he was treating Angela, especially how he was being critical about her taking part in the current operation.

"All in all. The cooperation between different services and other government agencies was quite a smooth operation." Deep Six said, trying to defuse the tension.

"I agree. The FBI sending one of its more talented computer crimes types to help us combat the Praetorians was a good call." Leatherneck replied.

"Nothing else?" Lady Jaye asked.

After a pause the group was dismissed. "You have a problem with me Sergeant Draper?" Falcon said as he approached Draper.

"Yes." Draper replied, "I have a problem of you questioning the credibility of a team member of ours."

"I just thought she was more a liability..." Falcon began.

"Sir, with all due respect go fuck yourself." Draper began angrily.

"Sergeant you are out of line!" Falcon replied.

"Sir, you are out of line for that snotty remark earlier!" Draper replied.

Torpedo intervened just then, "Both of you cool it now before I put both of you on report."

Falcon walked off while Torpedo went towards Draper, "I realize Falcon was out of line, and I know you professionally were wanting to correct that. But the fact that you have a personal interest in Miss Bennett does call your professionalism into account."

"Yes sir." Draper replied.

"I'll let you and Falcon's spat go for now. But the second time you two go at it, you, me and your unit's first sergeant are gonna have a long chat." Torpedo said, "Do I make myself clear..."

"Yes sir." Draper replied.

---

"Hey..." Draper said, when he ran into Angela, "Are you feeling OK?"

"I'm just a little drained from earlier." Angela replied.

"Are you sure? I mean what was that phone call about?" Draper replied.

"A friend of mine just ran into some trouble. I might have mentioned him one or two times." Angela began.

"You mean Sorcerer. I recall you brought the name up all those years ago." Draper replied.

"You still remember?" Angela replied.

"You are sort of a hard person for a man to forget. Especially with your story about losing your identity and your benefactor the Sorcerer." Draper replied.

"He was doing a programming job somewhere in a government installation in Nevada when the line went dead." Angela replied.

"Hey. I'm sure it was just a bad wireless spot." Draper said, not one bit convinced.

"He sounded panicked and worried about some outbreak and a computer virus." Angela said.

"Do you want to go get a cup of coffee or something and talk?" Draper replied and added, "I'll buy."

Angela smiled wanly, despite herself. "Thanks."

Draper lead Angela to a small side café in the Pit and bought a couple cups of coffee out. "I just wanted to apologize for being such a dolt earlier." Draper replied.

"I understand you were feeling upset." Angela replied, "But it hurt that you weren't willing to acknowledge you know me."

"I honestly can barely describe how I'm feeling right now." Draper replied, "I mean after not having seen you for so many years and finally seeing you again...I'm feeling every emotion I can think of."

"Carl, it's tough for me right now too." Angela said.

"Hey I promised I'd sit down and talk about all this." Draper replied, "But now really isn't the best time because of what's going on and..."

Kumar poked his head into the café saying, "Drape! Shake a leg dude, big Randy wants all of us at CSAR Control."

"I'll be right there." Draper said, looking at Angela one last time he added, "I promise we'll talk."

Angela said, "I'll hold you to that."

---

"Sergeant? This looks bad..." Wayland said.

Several Air Force Security Police troops were surrounding the facility with locked and loaded M16s, shotguns and 9mm Beretta pistols at their hips.

"Who goes there?" came the shout.

"Don't shoot. This is Moss 101. The CSAR package for that downed helicopter..." Wayland shouted.

The sentry allowed them to pass and Wayland, Occam and Aiden entered the perimeter to a base that was in state of lock down. Traffic lights blinked on and off, multiple collisions were evident and various military vehicles and personnel were all over the place.

"Who's in charge here?" Aiden asked their escort.

"I'm taking you to the officer of the guard, Sergeant." The sentry said as he noticed Aiden's rank.

"Roger that." Aiden replied.

The sentry lead the three men to the command post, in the center of a very large concrete hangar. There was the on scene commander, an Air Force colonel.

"Sir." The sentry said, "These three airmen carried out the rescue of our downed bird."

Area51 contains Cobra-La Heartless who were let loose by the Praetorian virus.

"Colonel Bagley." the mustachioed Air Force officer said, "Thank you gentlemen."

"We were attacked by an unidentified enemy and that drove our rescue bird away, sir." Aiden replied.

"I appreciate that you gentlemen tried to help our downed bird and crew. I'm only sorry that more couldn't be done." Bagley replied.

An alarm sounded again. "Gentlemen. I know security isn't your forte, but we could sure use your help..."

"Yes sir." Aiden replied, "We'd be willing to help. Occam, Brooklyn, stage our rucks here. We'll recover them later..."

"Report to Major Bollard. He's my security officer." Bagley said.

"Yes sir." Aiden replied.

---

"How's our patient doing?" Lady Jaye asked Lifeline.

"He seems to be recovering well. It's amazing he survived as long as he did. After several hours of surgery and a lot of use of my ESPer powers he was able to talk." Lifeline said and handed his report to the intelligence specialist.

"Thanks." Lady Jaye replied.

She headed into the command staff briefing room where she had the copies after action report of the boarding team that had boarded the Heidelberg Star waiting.

She showed the first picture of an older Dutch man, "This is Hans Pfitzer, 51, the chief engineer onboard the Heidelberg Star. He recently came out of surgery and is expected to make a full recovery."

"We're monitoring him now and when he starts to get better we'll see what additional information we can get. Especially with the mention of Zartan hanging around the Middle East." Lady Jaye replied.

"It didn't seem evident that he was even onboard the Heidelberg Star." Hawk said.

"No sir. No evidence suggested that." Lady Jaye replied.

"What's the status on the Heidelberg Star?" Hawk asked.

"It's entered Iranian territorial waters and is currently being attacked by another squadron of five Iranian Boghammar patrol boats." Lady Jaye said as she called up a satellite video.

The Iranian boats approached the Heidelberg Star dead on, firing their heavy machine guns and rockets as they went. Huge holes and fires began to appear on the decks and in the hull of the large freighter as two of the boats raced down the Heidelberg Star's port side, guns blazing.

Heartless began to fall into the sea, some cloaked in flames from the numerous fires below decks started by the Iranian assault. Another pair of Iranian boats attacked down the starboard side, stitching lines of holes into the side of the boat. The fifth boat stood off, firing rockets into the pilothouse.

The first pair of Iranian boats doubled back and fired their guns astern, coming up the port side of the freighter. As they raced away the Heidelberg Star listed to port. The other pair of Iranian boats followed close behind, blazing away with their own guns and gouts of flame shot from the massive freighter as fuel lines ruptured and the fuel flowing through them began to burn.

A sixth Iranian boat appeared, a Peykaap torpedo boat. As it raced in over the horizon it let fly with one of its torpedoes. After a brief delay a second torpedo was triggered. The second wasn't really necessary as the first torpedo exploded underneath the Heidelberg Star, cracking the mighty ship's keel and causing it to break apart and sink.

"I still can't answer why the higher ups wouldn't let us destroy the Heidelberg Star before it reached Iranian waters." Hawk said, "But according to a tidbit of information I received, there were fears that sinking the ship would make us look bad in the eyes of the world. Better for the Iranians to be cast as villains attacking international commerce than American forces destroying a neutral flagged ship..."

---

"Intruder at Sector Two...AGGH!!!" came the radio call and a wet ripping sound.

It was then that 'Brooklyn' Wayland's heart was just about in his Adams apple. Sector Two was just beyond the stacks of petroleum barrels near him.

Wayland pushed into the second part of the hangar with Occam right behind him. The dead body of a US Air Force security trooper lay with most of his torso and stomach ripped open. A glottal roar sounded and Wayland turned to see a creature with a red and white splotched carapace and arms with lethal looking scimitars, like those of a praying mantis. A mixed symbol, a blend of the COBRA snake-head, the Heartless insignia and the symbol of the Nobody was branded onto it's armored chest. It's eyes glowed blue. It was some kind of hybrid of a Cobra-La Royal Guard and something else that Wayland didn't want to even process.

All Artie Wayland knew just then was that this thing had just killed one of his fellow airmen and was now leaping towards him. Wayland leveled his GAU-5 and squeezed off seven shots in rapid succession. His skull was yammering as he yelled a mixture of jibberish and the occasional word. It was a second later that he realized he'd killed the thing and he could stop shooting.

"Nice shooting Brooklyn." Aiden said.

"I'm from Manhattan!" Wayland replied.

"Whatever." Aiden replied. The three airmen cleared the room together with an eight man security reaction element.

"We've got another objective." Staff Sergeant Roy Garland said, "That thing came from the elevator into the facility's lower levels. We thought our containment units managed to contain the problems down below..."

"Hey Sergeant, that's not our mission..." Wayland asked.

"We give them a hand, Brooklyn. I'll relay our situation to our HQ. These guys might be needing our help." Aiden said as he got on the radio to the CSAR Control Center.

"But who's gonna help _us._" Wayland grumbled as the team boarded the elevator that would take them into the bowels of Area 51...

---

"What's this about?" Draper asked as he headed into the room.

"If you'd shown up earlier instead of talking with your ex-girlfriend, maybe you'd be in the know." Staff Sergeant Harold Cho said.

"Fuck you Kim-Jon Il's bastard." Draper replied.

"What!?" Cho replied, "Oh that's real mature of you? How old are you again?"

"Hey, listen, Mister 'I Do Everything Right the First Time', I'm sick of your cocky, strutting attitude!" Draper replied.

"And I'm sick of you're hot tempered, bullshitting!" Cho replied.

"Both of you shut your traps this instant!" Master Sergeant Chong replied, "I'm serious about this. Draper, Cho. I know both of you have a mutual history of enmity going all the way back to when you were back in Indoc. and getting you two to shake hands and make up is about as likely as having Israel and Palestine negotiate treaties that both sides agree with."

Both men instantly shut up at the sight and sound of their normally easy going First Sergeant's angry reply.

"Now we have a situation with our SAR team in Nevada." Chong said, "Captain Travis is conferring with Ace and Master Chief Randall. That is what this meeting is likely about."

As if to confirm it, Captain Martin Travis, the Combat Rescue Officer for the unit, stepped in. "We've got a situation with our SAR team out there in Nevada. Moss 101 responded to a distress call from a downed helicopter outside Area 51."

"Moss 101 touched down on the airfield. Our teammates weren't aboard, but they had one severely wounded aircrewman from the wreck outside Area 51. The crew of Moss 101 said they were attacked by some winged creatures identified as the Heartless." Travis said.

"Sir. What are our orders?" Draper asked.

"Be on ready five status. Draw all weapons and ammunition as well as meds and comms." Travis said, "Ace and Master Chief are still trying to argue for our insertion into Area 51. They're currently discussing CSAR options with General Hawk."

"Sitrep sir?" Cho asked.

"Currently, Sergeant Cho, our teammates are assisting Area 51's QRF in containing the creatures attacking the base." Travis replied, "As it stands, be ready to go in less than five minutes...You all know what preparations to make. Good luck Gentlemen..."

The team filed out to make their preparations. "Strick, go check on the radios. I'll get the crypto and sign for the codes and callsigns. I'll meet you at the comms shack in ten minutes." Draper said.

Draper headed for the small café where he'd left Angela. She was just putting her cell phone away when he arrived.

"Hey." Draper said.

"Hi." Angela said as she turned around.

"Look. It sounds like we're getting spun up for another assignment." Draper replied.

"You're going to Area 51, aren't you?" Angela said.

"I can't really say." Draper replied.

"Well, I'll venture to guess where they're wanting to send you is where my boss is wanting to send me. He's on the phone with General Hawk right now." Angela replied.

Acid dread bubbled up in Draper's insides. Some sixth sense was warning him of an impending disaster.

Angela could see worry forming on Draper's face. "Look. The Praetorians are definitely involved in whatever is going on at Area 51 and I'm the agent with the most experience dealing with them. They're gonna need my help."

"I know. And I'm not gonna try and talk you out of it. But for God's sake be careful over there." Draper replied, "Honestly I'm worried about you."

"I'm a big girl Carl." Angela replied.

"I understand." Draper replied, "Look. We'll try and talk later. I've got to sign for the codes."

Angela nodded sadly and as Draper left the room her cell phone rang.

---

"In other news the Danish freighter Heidelberg Star was sunk by the Iranians." The CNN report began.

"Man this is heavy..." Flint said as he put a newspaper down on the table. The headline read. **Iranians Sink Danish Freighter**. The front page showed the death blow on the Heidelberg Star inflicted by the two Iranian torpedo boats.

"Every major newsline in the world has been talking about the Iranian attacks." Lady Jaye said.

She pointed at a copy of the New York Times. **Tehran Unapologetic About Destruction of Danish Freighter: New Tanker War To Follow? **

"What I don't understand is the why didn't they allow our team to scuttle the Heidelberg Star?" Lady Jaye said, "They knew an international incident would result from this..."

"The order came down directly from the top." Flint said, "Suspiciously though there was the signature of a General Eddington on the order."

"Eddington?" Lady Jaye said, "Even he wouldn't be stupid enough to try and provoke the Iranians into a war."

"No. I don't think Eddington is the mastermind. A lackey perhaps. But a mastermind no." Flint replied.

"Syndrome?" Lady Jaye asked.

"Yes. But we have no proof." Flint said, "At this point all I have is conjecture. First Syndrome fires an Omnidroid at Bandar Abbas that takes out a third of the Iranian military(2). Then there's the fact that the Jugglers have seen the Iranians as a thorn in their side. It seems a bit coincidental but it's not a great stretch to think that they somehow talked Syndrome into firing that thing at Iranian territory."

"Syndrome having a connection with the Jugglers? The very thought is disturbing." Lady Jaye replied, "And that means when we have to confront him, he could be a foe even more formidable than we imagined. But what is his plan?"

"Allie. That's the sixty-four dollar question. I'm assigning you some of our finest intelligence specialists. Your only task is gathering as much information on Syndrome as you possibly can." Flint said.

"What of these Praetorians that resurfaced?" Lady Jaye asked.

"Scarlet's handling them. Be sure all that debriefing material you got from Agent Bennett gets to her."

"Right." Lady Jaye replied.

---

The lower levels of Area 51 showed just how large of a complex the base was. The upper levels where several of the X-men had been briefly detained following the Sentinel Incident were but the tip of the iceberg.

Right about now all the history of Area 51 since 1947 meant absolutely jack shit to Jacob Resh, a.k.a. Sorcerer. He'd come a long way from the seventeen year old hacker who had helped Angela Bennett regain her identity and life from the Praetorians ten years ago. He had become a computer programming consultant for the Department of Defense and was at Area 51 on a nondisclosure agreement to try and fix issues with the base's security system.

The sounds of gunfire and screaming faded in the distance as he crouched inside a ventilation duct.

All he remembered was working in the mainframe area when some mysterious virus started to take over the computer systems of Area 51. The first thing to go down was security and the next thing he remembered hearing earlier was the alarm and the announcement of a Security Alert.

Technical Sergeant Perez's body, or rather what remained of it, lay in a pool of blood in the middle of the floor. The burly twenty-two year old had been assigned as an escort for Sorcerer when he had arrived at the facility a week ago.

Perez had been one of the first casualties of the containment failure. Several strange looking creatures with glowing yellow eyes, black skin, clawed appendages and weird symbols on their bodies had charged into the room.

Perez had drawn his 9mm sidearm and started to shoot at them. The weapon and a good chunk of Perez's right arm lay in the midst of the floor. Perez's head lay about six feet away, face still frozen in an expression of dismayed horror.

Sorcerer knew he couldn't hang around the area any longer. And he also had to survive this. He had important information.

What had just transpired on Area 51 wasn't the result of a computer system fault. It was caused by a virus which bore a signature to the Praetorians.

He checked his cell phone in his pocket. There were still bars, not many, but enough to make a phone call. He scrolled down his contact list until he got Angela's phone number. He hit the send button and the phone rang.

"Jake, oh my God I was worried..." Angela replied.

"Yeah. I'm OK. Look. I'm sorry to rush this, but there's something seriously wrong here." Sorcerer said, "The computer problems we've been having. It's a virus alright but it's some sort of Trojan software that has the Praetorians' stink all over it."

"Jake? Where are you?" Angela said.

The sound of scraping and movement could be heard and Sorcerer looked through the grate to see several Shadow Heartless moving through the room. The antennae on their heads twitched.

"Look. Angela. I don't have much time. Let your bosses at the FBI know the Praetorians are back." Sorcerer said, "With a vengeance..."

"Where are you?" Angela asked.

"The lower levels...I'm stuffed in an air conditioner vent and I'm very popular right now...AAAGGH!!!!!"

"Jake! Jake?!" Angela's concerned voice could be heard over the phone's tinny speaker.

Sorcerer crawled for all he was worth through the ventilation duct as he saw blood bubbling from his left hip. A raking claw had slashed into the vents from below and he was almost sure that whatever the creature down there was, it was nearby.

He had no sooner reached a dead end when he felt himself being bodily hauled out of the ventilation duct. He looked up into a very bright flashlight being held by a wiry Caucasian man with a New York accent.

"Hey Sergeant! I got a wounded civvy!" came the shout.

A large, muscular African American man also in the BDU pattern of the US Air Force was holding onto him.

"It's alright buddy." The New Yorker spoke, "We're gonna treat your wound and get you outta here."

"Occ, move that light about two inches to the left." the New Yorker said.

"Good job Brooklyn." Staff Sergeant Aiden said.

"Sergeant! I'm from Manhattan!" The New Yorker replied as he placed a pressure bandage onto Sorcerer's left hip.

"Can you walk?" Occam asked.

"I'm not sure..." Sorcerer said as he groaned and tried to stand, shakily.

"Occam. Give me a hand with this guy and..." Wayland said.

A Cobra-La Heartless burst from the vent about to cleave Sorcerer in two. A nearby Air Force security man, Airman First Class Harvey Fanning opened fire with his M16 on three round burst. The first burst blew into the creature's chest. It kept advancing.

"Ah Shit!" Wayland shouted. Fanning was opening fire with his weapon less than two feet from the side of Wayland's head.

Fanning fired again and this burst of fire blew the Cobra-La Heartless's face apart and it fell twitching to the ground.

"Thanks." Sorcerer said with a gasp.

"What?" Wayland replied.

"I said thank you." Sorcerer said.

"I can't hear a damn thing you're saying." Wayland replied.

"Not like you're all that great a listener anyway Brooklyn." Aiden said.

"Homeplate this is QRF." Technical Sergeant Tom Waino, the security team leader, said over the radio, "We have a wounded civilian, ambulatory. Request permission to evac him before proceeding to Alpha Team's position."

"Negative QRF, head to Alpha Team's position. They need your help. Collapse Alpha Team back to your original insertion point and evac the casualty from there." came the voice.

"Things are about to get interesting my friend." Waino said as Occam and Wayland escorted the wounded Sorcerer to the beleaguered Alpha Team.

---

"I must say that your organization's contribution to my efforts have been most helpful Mr. Trelawney." Syndrome said.

"Thank you." Sean Trelawney replied, "But I have to ask what do you stand to gain from provoking the Iranians like you have."

"Destabilization around the world is part of my master plan for this new world order." Syndrome said, "First distract our adversaries with crises', emergencies, and terrors all over the world...while we prepare for the final blow."

"So when the Heartless take over this world what prevents them from taking our hearts?" Trelawney asked.

"Let's say I have my ways of controlling them. Certain groups, your organization included, who have helped me will be spared from the Heartless." Syndrome replied, "And you will be elevated to positions of power in this new world order..."

Trelawney thought. _Classic meglomaniac. Should be easy to manipulate. _But he said, "On the subject of Area 51, the virus is in place and we're downloading _all _the data on its computers."

"And when it is done it will erase all of Area 51's data...right..." COBRA Commander said.

"Exactly." Trelawney said and thought. _Nincompoop, weren't you_ _paying attention during that brief I gave. _

"And your distractor was quite effective." Trelawney said, "Your Operation Pinafore, with its commandeering of random merchant ships in the Persian Gulf and sending them towards Iranian waters will cause international tensions to rise."

"Already the Iranians have attacked two more merchant ships that came too close to their coastal waters before the US Navy chased them off." COBRA Commander added. He pointed to a small TV set which showed a burning tanker being escorted by the USS Jason Dunham, a Navy destroyer. The subscript said that the Dunham had sank one Boghammar patrol boat and driven off two more with severe damage using her main gun and crew served weapons.

"Yes. It seems like another Iranian confrontation in the Gulf is inevitable." Trelawney said, and held up another newspaper article. **U.S. Navy to Escort Merchant Vessels Through Persian Gulf.**

"Again that is thanks to our operatives tampering with the navigational and auto-pilot programs of various other merchant ships in the Gulf." Trelawney replied.

"Untraceable tampering I hope." Syndrome asked.

"Don't worry about that." Trelawney replied.

"I seem to recall there was a computer expert named Angela Bennett whom together with a hacker named Sorcerer who succeeded in bringing down your organization." COBRA Commander replied snidely.

"We were down for a while but we returned and subtly re-introduced ourselves back into the world." Trelawney replied.

"And I maintain Angela Bennett is a threat." COBRA Commander replied, "I would trust you to eliminate her yourselves but your organization was unable to get rid of her when she didn't know about you...what makes you think you can get rid of her now that she's a member of the FBI's computer crimes unit. Of course I could send a force of Crimson Guards to kill her..."

"No. Leave Angela Bennett and 'the Sorcerer' to me. I do want the pleasure of finishing them off myself." Trelawney said.

"You do have a poor track record of attempting to do so." COBRA Commander replied.

"Just like you have a poor track record of world conquest attempts?" Trelawney replied.

"Enough!" Syndrome bellowed, "Trelawney. You have exactly one week to be rid of Angela Bennett and the Sorcerer. If you fail to kill them, I will allow COBRA Commander free reign on both of them."

"I promise that neither Angela Bennett nor 'the Sorcerer' will be a problem." Trelawney said. The meeting concluded and the villains filed out. Except for one Sean Trelawney.

He picked up his Blackberry and noticed there was an e-mail from the Chairman of the Praetorians. He read the message.

_Are they ripe for betrayal? _

Trelawney typed a single word into his Blackberry. _Yes. _As he transmitted the message he plotted just how he was going to personally eliminate Angela Bennett in order to repay all the trouble she had caused him.

---

To be continued...Up Next: Angela and Dial Tone together with members of the CSAR team arrive at Area 51 to try and defeat the virus. Later when they attempt to discern the Praetorians' next move they make several disturbing discoveries.

in Red Witch's X-men Evolution fic Electric Dreams...

2Referenced in G.I. Joe fanfic The Badger. Also Syndrome has been a problem in this AU-verse before. Check out my fics Relocated and Meet the Incredibles for details.


	3. Into the Lower Levels

Into the Lower Levels

Disclaimer: Same as before...

---

"There is a mysterious virus ravaging the computer systems of Area 51. Three of our teammates are trapped here on this facility. We're here to bring our teammates out alive and render what assistance we can. Agent Angela Bennett of the FBI and Dialtone of G.I. Joe are going to try and stop the virus." Captain Travis began. Shortly after he'd briefed his team to be on ready five status he had been called into HQ.

"Roger that sir." Master Sergeant Chong replied.

"Chong. You and I will man our CP at the main hangar." Travis said. "We'll link up with HQ. Sergeant Draper, you'll man our communications as well."

"We leave ASAP for the tarmac." Travis replied.

The team headed for the tarmac. Battle gear and medical and comms gear was checked for the last time, weapons were locked and loaded and the team headed towards the bird where Angela and Dialtone were waiting for them.

As they waited Dialtone asked Angela. "So where did you know Sergeant Draper from?"

Angela stopped short for a second. She didn't want to answer that. There was still so much raw history laid out from the time she met Carl in Qatar hours ago.

Dialtone could see that he'd asked the wrong question. He guessed there had to be some more than personal history between Angela Bennett and Carl Draper.

_Saved by the bell. _Angela thought when she saw the CSAR team crossing the tarmac.

The team boarded the helicopter and it took off, racing across the Nevada desert.

---

"Sergeant?" Senior Airman Ahmed said, "The latest comms intercepts from Iranian territory."

Lady Jaye nodded and said in perfect Farsi, "Thank you."

Ahmed's eyes widened as he replied in stammering Farsi, "You're welcome. I didn't know you spoke the language."

"I'm learning it right now,." Lady Jaye replied, pointing to a copy of Rosetta Stone on her desk, "I have a feeling it's a necessary language to know for this assignment of ours. I appreciate the work you've been putting in. Your work with Fahrahnakian shortly after the Omnidroid attack on Bandar Abbas was excellent."

"Thank you." Ahmed replied, "Quite a few of the transmissions deal with identifying freighters that seem to wander into their claimed territorial waters. In the brief dialogues before the Iranians started shooting there were references to holds full of Heartless. The ships tried to protest in vain that there was nothing onboard and that they were in international waters, but as the two cases before me attest the Iranians are shooting first and asking questions later."

Ahmed left the room to return to the communications center. He was working a twelve hour shifts with two of the Pit's other five Farsi speakers in three man teams in the communications center monitoring Iranian radio and communication traffic.

Other than going to the intelligence shop to drop off his findings every so often the only time he'd moved from that room was to tell Carl Draper, his house-mate, that he wouldn't be able to come home that night and that the leftover Chinese food would likely go stale.

---

Angela Bennett looked around at the command post for the Area 51 containment effort. An officer with tousled blonde hair, glasses, and a mustache headed over to her and Dial Tone.

"You must be the computer experts G.I. Joe sent. I'm Colonel Bagley, commanding officer of this facility." Bagley replied.

"What can you tell us about this virus?" Angela asked.

"Only that it appears to have infiltrated all areas of our computer system and is downloading files to an offsite location." Bagley replied.

"Have you attempted a trace?" Angela asked.

Bagley frowned at the female FBI Computer Crimes expert, "We attempted to run a trace but the virus simply gave us a dummy lead."

Angela said, "It sounds a lot like a variation of a virus by the Praetorians."

"Praetorians?" Bagley replied.

"A computer terrorist organization." Angela replied.

"Roger. I've heard the last of their activities was in 1999." Bagley replied.

"They seem to have become active once again." Angela replied, "This virus being evidence of it."

"Can you defeat it? Restore our security systems?" Bagley asked.

"That's what we're here for." Angela said as she and Dial Tone were punching away at a couple computer terminals.

Nearby Staff Sergeant Carl Draper was setting up his communications gear. "I've got a line to the Pit, sir."

"Roger." Captain Travis replied as he was conferring with Master Sergeant Chong and Major Bollard, Directorate of Operations of the 211th Security Squadron, Area 51's security unit's second in command after his C.O. Lieutenant Colonel Josephine Lockwood had gone missing.

"The last contact we had with Sergeant Aiden's team stated they followed a QRF team into the facility's lower levels." Travis said.

"I'm already on it sir." Draper replied, "Bloodhound 1 this is Houndtooth 13. Radio check over?"

"No joy yet, sir, I'll keep trying." Draper continued, trying to keep frustration out of his voice.

"We got wounded all over the base from those Heartless escaping from the lower levels." Koester said, "I'm taking Kumar to go try and assist the Area 51 medics."

"Check." Travis said.

"I'm taking Strickland with me. Base security's sending another reaction team down to the levels and we're joining up with it." Cho said.

"Good. Keep comms with Sergeant Draper." Travis ordered.

"Yes sir." Cho replied.

Kumar and Koester headed for the medical triage area. The base hospital had sent out mobile trauma units to a cordoned section of the hangar.

Several airmen and civilians lay on cots or gurneys groaning as they clutched at wounds. "What happened here?" Master Sergeant Chong asked as he followed Kumar and Koester.

"Some of those Heartless creatures got out of the lower levels and started attacking the base. Security managed to drive them off and the containment protocols were engaged, sealing off the lower levels." Major Bollard replied. He was a thin, mustachioed man with horn rimmed glasses and a holstered 9mm pistol.

"How many wounded?" Chong asked.

"At least fifty." Bollard replied.

Koester and Kumar were already starting to run an IV to a bleeding airman, with the assistance of another Air Force medic.

"How is security holding?" Chong asked.

"My guys are managing to contain the intruders to the lower levels. We're not sure how they infiltrated, but we haven't been able to retake several key sectors of the lower facility." Bollard replied.

"Roger." Chong said and headed over to inform Travis.

"Sir, Cho and Strickland have linked up with security team callsign Tracker 21, they're headed down the elevator shaft right now." Draper replied.

"This isn't a virus." Angela said as she peered at her computer screen.

"I agree." Dialtone said from his own console.

"What is it then?" Draper said as he turned his head to talk to them.

"Draper, keep comms with the teams down below. I'll worry about that virus." Travis said.

"Yes sir." Draper replied.

"This is Tracker 21 we've arrived on the lower levels..." came Strickland's voice on the radio.

"Roger. Keep me posted Strick." Draper replied.

"What about that virus?" Travis asked.

Angela motioned the Air Force captain over. "It's showing more and more signs of being a Trojan as opposed to a random computer virus. And what's more disturbing is that it's a type of Trojan even military computer security protocols should have detected and defeated."

At Travis' frown she added, "No offense."

"None taken. I'm just trying to figure out how exactly such a virus was able to get past security protocols." Travis added.

"I was just getting there." Angela said, "Dialtone found the logs of the Area 51 Firewall. It detected what looked like the old Melissa Worm from almost a decade ago. Easily defeated. Right?"

"I follow you." Travis said, "Kind of."

"Well. That's where a trapdoor got triggered and the Trojan hiding under the Melissa Worm's encryption entered the system." Angela replied.

"Trapdoor?" Travis asked.

"It's programmer lingo." Angela said as she typed in some more commands, "We build them into networks all the time to allow us to access the system from the inside. Usually it's for when operators screw up and lock the system up. It lets us go in 'behind the scenes' so to speak and fix the issue."

"OK. I follow you now. But that must mean that this infiltration of Area 51's computer network was a deliberate breach with a likely inside job." Travis said

"Even worse," Angela added, "The Trojan began to start downloading files from the Area 51 network as soon as it entered the system to an offsite location."

"Can you trace it?" Travis replied.

"We're trying right now." Angela replied.

"What! Damn it!" Dial Tone said.

"What's going on?" Angela turned towards the G.I. Joe networking specialist.

"When I ran the trace program it started to delete the log of the Firewall." Dialtone said, "And its deleting copies of the files that its downloading."

"Sounds like a classic Praetorian ploy." Angela replied as one of the four radios Draper was carrying crackled to life.

"Houndstooth...Bloodhound 1...we got Sorcerer...wounded..." came the garbled radio transmission.

"Bloodhound 1 this is Houndstooth." Draper said, "I copy you have one wounded man. Sorcerer."

Angela looked up just then. "They got him." Draper said and then spoke back into his mike, "How bad is he?"

"He's ambulatory. We're headed towards a security team callsign Alpha One. They couldn't med-evac him." Bloodhound 1 said, "He's conscious he just can barely walk."

"Tracker 21 this is Houndstooth." Draper began over the radio, "Be advised to head for Alpha One's position to rendezvous with Bloodhound 1. Also they have one ambulatory patient with them."

"This is Tracker 21, copy all." Strickland's voice came over the radio.

Angela glanced over at Draper and tapped Dial Tone's shoulder after she yawned, "Can you excuse me for a minute."

"Sure." Dial Tone said, "While you're up could you get me some coffee too?"

Angela headed over to where she saw a coffee pot brewing and poured a cup for herself and Dial Tone. After leaving a cup by Dial Tone she went back for a third cup and headed over to where Draper was tending the radios.

"Hey." Angela said and handed him a steaming coffee cup.

"Thanks." Draper replied and sipped at the cup.

"Don't thank me yet. It tastes like two day old sludge from a truck stop, reused grounds and all." Angela replied.

"As long as it's strong enough to double as battery acid I don't really care about taste." Draper said.

Angela lightly chuckled despite herself, "You haven't changed one bit."

At Draper's askance look she added, "With the coffee habit I mean."

"Oh." Draper replied.

"It's gotta be rough..." Angela said.

"What do you mean?" Draper asked.

"Carl, I know you're worried about something. I know you well enough." Angela replied.

"My buddies are down their risking their necks and I'm relatively nice and safe up here." Draper replied.

"You're doing a good job of keeping everyone on track. You used to say the pilot may fly the plane but the Air Traffic Controller ensures he lands the damn thing." Angela replied.

Draper smiled at her remark, feeling oddly uplifted by her presence and feeling that her stopping by wasn't just to give him a cup of coffee. _Hell. I'll sort this whole thing out later. Mission first...The guys are down there._ Draper thought.

Angela headed back to her console to try and continue the pursuit of the mysterious Praetorian virus.

"Houndstooth. Houndstooth! This is Tracker 21!" Strickland's voice came up over the radio.

"Send it!" Draper said.

"We've got contacts down in by the elevator area! It looks like the Heartless have overrun the entry point." Strickland said, the sounds of gunshots and screams could heard.

"Captain Travis!" Draper shouted, "Captain Travis!"

Travis headed over. "Sir, I'm getting a report from Tracker 21. They say the entry area's been overrun. They're retaking it now."

"Roger. Tell them to push through to Bloodhound 1." Travis said.

"Roger sir." Draper replied.

---

"I don't like this one bit, Cho." Strickland replied as he stuck a fresh clip into his M4 Carbine. The bodies of fifteen Heartless lay atop the eight corpses of the squad that had been overrun before Tracker 21 had appeared at their position about sixty seconds too late to rescue them from their grisly fate.

"Just keep comms with Draper going." Cho replied.

"Roger." Strickland said as he adjusted the transmit button on the handgrip of his M4. As a modification Strickland had duct taped a transmit button to the forward handgrip of his rifle so he could talk and shoot at the same time.

"Now what?" Strickland said.

"Get on the line to Sergeant Aiden." Cho said, "I shouldn't have to tell you that."

_Arrogant fuck. No wonder Drape hates him. _Strickland thought, "Bloodhound 1 this is Tracker 21. What's your position over?"

---

"Shit. Looks like 3rd degree burns to the front torso area and fifty percent 2nd degree burns to the arms." Kumar said as they reached a severely burned Airman. Much of his BDU top had been burned into his upper body.

"No chest injuries?" Koester said.

Kumar bent over to look, listen and feel at the patient's breathing. Aside from the occasional moan of pain there wasn't any sign of labored breathing. "None. Dressing wounds now." Kumar replied.

Koester checked the next patient. "One facial laceration..."

The man lay on the stretcher moaning. His face had been slashed by a three clawed hand and he had numerous puncture wounds and scratches on the torso. His forearms and hands were cut and bruised as well.

"No obstructed airway." Koester said as he began to bandage this casualty.

"Two more for the ambulance!" Kumar shouted and paramedics appeared to take the next two patients to the base hospital.

---

"Bloodhound 1, this is Houndstooth." Draper said over the radio, his voice sounding dim and barely coherent in the darkness, "You've got another squad, Tracker 21 with Cho and Strickland coming your way."

. Darryl Aiden made his report. He was glad that he heard Draper's voice on the other side of his radio. That meant that the unit had gotten their message and was on their way over to help them.

"What's going on?" Sorcerer groaned.

"Our guys got my message. They're sending another team down to try and help us out." Aiden replied.

"Hope it's soon Sergeant." Wayland said as he shot down a Shadow Heartless that had been trailing them with a single round.

"It'll be about high time you become an expert rifleman then Brooklyn." Aiden replied.

"I told you, Sergeant, I'm from Manhattan." Wayland replied.

"Later Brooklyn. I've got comms with Tracker 21 coming in and...AGGHH!!" Aiden shouted as a Heartless leapt from behind a panel and tackled him.

Wayland couldn't fire. Occam was in his line of sight. The muscular African American leveled his M4 and squeezed the trigger. CLICK. Occam released his hold on his M4, still attached to his body by its sling and extracted his Beretta 92F sidearm. He started to fire round after round into the Heartless, spraying black blood into the walls and all over himself and Aiden.

Aiden got back up on his feet with Occam's assistance. "Are you alright?" Occam asked.

"Fine Oc. Thanks for the save." Aiden replied.

Occam reloaded his M9 and checked his M4. A bad round in the rifle. He ejected the bad round and reloaded with a fresh magazine before putting the mostly empty magazine into one of his cargo pockets.

In the midst of the floor was the remnant of yet another bloody battle. Four dead Air Force security guards lay in the middle of the floor. Waino let out a slight grunt to express his anger at the sight of four of his buddies dead.

He bent down to examine the battlefield at line of fire level. The team had been taken by surprise. That much was clear. Bullet holes lined the wall as they had returned fire at something moving fast. Spatters of black blood and the corpses of two more of what . Aiden had identified as Cobra-La Royal Guard Heartless lay in the middle of the floor.

"Alpha Team, this is Bloodhound 1. Over." Aiden began.

"This is Alpha Team...we're under attack. We've lost seven people already. Barricades to Research Lab One are failing...there's too many of them!!! AAAGGHH!!!" A wet ripping sound accompanied the distinctly human scream.

"Shit..." Aiden said, "Houndstooth this is Bloodhound 1. Alpha Team's position has been overrun."

"Bloodhound 1. Do you have a fix on Tracker 21's position?" Draper's voice echoed back.

"Standby." Aiden replied, "Tracker 21 this is Bloodhound 1. Posrep. Over."

"We're at Tunnel Junction 19." Strickland's voice echoed back.

Draper's voice echoed over both sets. "Bloodhound 1. I hold Tracker 21 at 150 meters from your position..."

"I concur." Aiden replied, "Deconflicting."

"Blue. Blue. Blue." Strickland shouted.

"God it's good to see you guys." Strickland added when the team came into view.

Cho shook his head at Strickland's lack of professionalism with that comment. The airman should be concentrating on the mission. Not wasting time with unprofessional comments like that.

Strickland felt heated at Cho's disapproving scowl. _Cold hearted bastard. No wonder any time he and Drape are within 100 feet of each other Draper looks like he's contemplating murder. _Strickland thought.

---

"Can you stop the downloads?" Captain Travis asked.

"We're still working at it. But if we can't I connected an external hard drive to Area 51's mainframe. Whatever file the Praetorians download will be copied to my external hard drive." Dialtone said, "Also Angela's working on damage control."

"Keep me posted." Travis said.

"Sir." Draper began. "We've got Tracker 21 and Bloodhound 1 merged."

"Our people?" Travis asked.

"Aiden, Occam and Wayland are safe." Draper replied with more than a little relief evident in his voice.

"Good news." Travis replied.

"Sir! Three more teams have been overrun!" A radio operator shouted from his station.

Colonel Bagley wiped sweat from his face. More and more of his command was starting to deteriorate around him.

Major Bollard said, "Have that team retake Alpha Team's position."

"Respectfully, sir, if that point's been overrun the enemy strength might be too large for two squads to handle." Travis replied.

"Captain Travis. My orders are to retake the lower levels of Area 51 by any means available." Major Bollard replied.

"Sir with all due respect. Five of those troopers are my men." Travis said.

"Very well. But I could use your men in the fight." Bollard replied, "Are you really intending to pull your men out of an operation when their fellow airmen are at stake?"

"No sir." Travis replied.

"Captain Travis!" Draper shouted, "I've got Kilo Company from G.I. Joe QRF enroute to our position. ETA half an hour."

Travis smiled triumphantly and said, "Sir. I believe we have help on the way for you."

"Kilo company?" Bollard replied.

"They're part of an infantry unit, affectionately known as Greenshirts, assigned to G.I. Joe and tasked as our support troops." Travis replied.

"Right." Bollard replied, "The lower levels are priority for this mission."

"By the way, Drape, let Beach Head know I love his timing." Travis replied.

"Yes sir." Draper replied.

---

Senior Airman Ahmed had never been so busy in all his life. Lady Jaye had to brief General Hawk and Scarlet was keeping her eye on some hush hush situation. He was now driving Scarlet's government SUV towards the medical facility.

He headed towards the Pit's Infirmary where Lifeline was tending to the wounded engineer. The man had awakened and had been talking about his experiences. He had been instructed to retrieve Psyche Out and wait in the room with him.

"Hans Pfitzer," Lifeline said as Psyche Out followed by Senior Airman Ahmed walked into the room, "This is Doctor Kenneth D. Rich and this is Senior Airman Faisal Ahmed, his aide."

Ahmed took out a laptop computer from a bag and started to boot it up as Psyche Out introduced himself.

"Are you feeling better, Engineer Pfitzer." Lifeline said.

"Yes. Your doctor is remarkably skilled at his trade." the Dutchman replied, "But I am afraid I'm still not quite right as rain Doctor."

"Would you mind telling us what happened?" Lifeline said.

Ahmed was typing madly at his keyboard.

"We were on a routine cargo run through the Persian Gulf through to the port of Basra." Pfitzer replied.

"It was dark that night. There was almost no moonlight and the stars were obscured by the clouds." Pfitzer said, "I had just eaten supper and was making my rounds through the engine room when I heard the scream of "Boarders!" on the announcing system. I remembered friends of mine had been hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia and so I began to try and lock down the engine room."

"As I was dogging down the hatch I saw the face of a not-quite man in the window. He had a white helmet. I originally thought he was an Iranian frogman." Pfitzer continued, "The Iranians had been so paranoid of late, especially after Bandar Abbas was attacked on CNN. They had boarded a few civilian tankers that got too close to their claimed territory. But they hadn't actually started killing people. Yet."

"Shortly after the door had been thrown open with a violent force. I found I was on my back and standing atop me was this glowing eyed beast with midnight black skin. I heard screams and those included my own as the thing ripped me open before I passed out..."

Ahmed continued to type at his computer until Psyche Out motioned for him to stop. The two left the room to prepare their findings for Lady Jaye.

---

"Running low!" Wayland shouted as he fired more rounds of his M4 at yet another Cobra-La Heartless.

The creature fell twitching to the ground but it had taken half of Wayland's magazine to kill it. "Here! Make this count Brooklyn!" Aiden said as he tossed another magazine towards the PJ.

Jacob held his hands over his ears. The PJ, Wayland, knelt beside him to protect him from any Heartless. The man had been shooting steadily at the Heartless that bubbled out of any conceivable opening to try and take down the two squads that had taken the room down.

"It's OK man. We're gonna get you outta here." Wayland said to Sorcerer and then aimed his carbine at Soldier Heartless and fired several shots while shouting, "Take that you unholy sonofabitch!!!"

"What did you say?" Sorcerer said as he tried to cover his ears.

"Die you unholy prick!" Wayland shouted and gunned down a Shadow Heartless, he turned to Sorcerer and said, "Uhm I said you're gonna be alright man."

"Man down!" came the shout.

A Heartless was on top of a security man, clawing at his chest. Occam gunned it down and dragged the wounded man from the line of fire.

"Can you still shoot?" Occam asked.

The man nodded weakly and Occam pressed the airman's 9mm into his hand. "If anything gets too close and it isn't human shoot it."

He kept on treating the cuts. They were bloody but mercifully they were shallow. The Heartless didn't have time to puncture the airman's chest entirely before Occam had killed it.

Aiden passed the report, "We could use some help down here. We have three dead and two wounded..."

"Standby." Draper's voice replied back, "We've got QRF's Kilo Company headed your way. Hold on..."

"We're doing our best." Aiden replied tightly as more gunfire erupted.

More Heartless came clamoring up through various doors and hatches, crawling over the dead bodies of their mates. Gunfire raked into the creatures. But ammo was starting to run low.

Strickland was wrestling with a Shadow Heartless that was clinging to his chest. Occam had run to help him only to be tackled by a large Soldier Heartless as he was taking aim.

More gunfire echoed and cries of "Yo Joe!" came into the room.

Several men in the Army Combat Utilities came rushing into the room. Aiden couldn't help but smile as the QRF troopers ran in and beat the Heartless back.

"Need some rescuing Air Force." 1st Lieutenant Conrad Hart, 2nd Platoon commander, said.

"Never thought I'd be happier to see you Army bubbas in my life." Aiden replied.

---

Draper sighed audibly as he heard the radio traffic. The QRF team was clearing the lower levels of the facility room by room.

"Damn it!" Angela swore, "I wasn't able to stop the downloads and the Praetorians wiped Area 51's whole mainframe."

"My external hard drive has a lot of the files left. Almost seventy-five percent of Area 51s files." Dial Tone said, "I also engineered a trace program embedded in one of the files. If the Praetorians activate that file it'll mark their position on our tracking system."

"We make a good team." Angela said and lightly punched Dial Tone in the arm.

Draper glared slightly at Dial Tone and the G.I. Joe computer expert felt the ire of the Combat Controller. He had heard rumors that Angela Bennett and Carl Draper had a past affair and he was clearly seeing that the rumors were true.

Well. Angela was an interesting woman. But after what he'd had to deal with that one time he and Lady Jaye had something going, before she married Flint of course, he wasn't about to get in a thing over a woman again. And besides he got the sense that there was still something between Angela and Draper.

Angela headed towards Draper. She wasn't sure what would be too much at that point. She could see he was clearly on the downswing of all that focused energy but she didn't want to accidentally lead him on.

"We did it." Draper said. "We got our people out of there."

Angela could see the immense relief. While his life hadn't been directly threatened, Carl Draper had been guiding units through some very difficult circumstances. She gave him a gentle pat on the back.

Draper smiled back at her. Angela felt a feeling she hadn't felt in almost ten years regarding him. Despite the fact that he had an almost two day old beard growth and looked somewhat bedraggled and tied she wondered if he had the same stamina he had as a twenty-two year old. _Where did THAT thought come from?_ Angela thought.

They were distracted by the sound of banging coming from a nearby airduct. Draper raised his weapon and Angela pulled the ventilation duct back.

A small creature resembling a house cat with cream colored fur with a brown tail tip and brown rear paws. Its oval shaped head had six prominent whiskers and an oval gold coin atop its head. The fur was somewhat singed and burnt and a layer of dust covered it.

"Oh my God...it's OK...you're gonna be alright...easy girl..." Angela said.

The strange cat sprinted past Angela before Draper caught it. The thing tried to scratch him. "Hey! Take it easy...it's OK...It's OK..." Draper noticed a tattoo in the inner ear of the cat, "Meowzie...it's alright."

"What is that?" Travis asked.

"I don't know sir." Draper replied, "Some kind of cat or something."

The cat tried to scratch him again. "Easy. Easy. It's OK. I won't hurt you..."

"Carl..." Angela said with concern in her voice.

"It's OK Angela I know what I'm doing." Draper replied. Angela handed him her FBI windbreaker.

Draper wrapped Meowzie in the improvised blanket and she licked the side of his face.

"Hey...that tickles..." Draper smiled as he headed towards the helipad with the rest of his team.

The team boarded the helicopter and the bird lifted into the air in company with the G.I. Joe QRF birds.

---

Kumar staggered back from the CSAR debriefing. He'd been up for almost a full day and some change and was utterly exhausted when he staggered into the house.

He stripped off his evil smelling BDU top and t-shirt. He thought of throwing it into the laundry basket, but he didn't want to stink up the laundry room. He decided to go into the small backyard to hang them off the wooden table on the patio when he was taken aback by a sight.

He could see Vanessa lying on her back on one of the lawn chairs. She was wearing a silvery blue bikini that took a lot of guess-work out of the equation. Her reddish brown hair was piled behind her head in a simply pony tail.

Kumar instantly forgot fatigue at that moment as his eyes fell upon his wife. "Hmm...honey do you think you could do my back?"

"Vanessa...do you have any idea how bad I smell right now?" Kumar said with an audible swallow.

Vanessa turned over on her stomach, "I guess you're gonna have a shower after you're done. We can't have someone all dirty in the bed."

Kumar could not help but see the seductive smile on Vanessa's face. He untied the knot on the bikini top behind Vanessa's neck and then the knot behind her back before he lathered the suntan lotion. He felt himself getting hot under the collar with Vanessa's muttered, "Mm, a little lower..."

After he was done, Kumar went to take a shower. He'd no sooner taken off his clothes and turned the water on when he heard the door open. He saw Vanessa, still in that very eye catching silvery blue number of a bikini.

"I couldn't wait." Vanessa said.

"I thought you had work today?" Kumar said, "Not that I'm complaining."

"Scarlet gave me the day off today for some reason. She said I've got some longer days ahead of me and I might as well enjoy this one." Vanessa said.

He eyed his wife up and down. "Well you can't take a bath with clothes on..." Kumar remarked.

"Well you are the senior airman of the two of us." Vanessa replied as she turned around, arms folded over her breasts.

Kumar undid the knots for Vanessa's top at the back of her neck. She craned her neck to kiss him and he angled his face so he could kiss her lightly on the lips.

Vanessa met the kiss as Kumar was undoing the knot behind her back. She could feel his frame against her backside as her bra fell away. She turned to wrap her arms around his neck, kissing at his mouth and neck as he reached for her hip and undid one of the knots there, causing the bottom to fall away to the floor.

They embraced passionately and kissed in the shower as the water rushed over their frames. Soap and towels were forgotten as the lovers made love.

---

"So. Leaving soon?" Draper asked.

"Probably tomorrow." Angela replied, "After I get debriefed and after we're done briefing General Hawk. Director Womack wants me back at Quantico in a hurry to brief him on the new Praetorian threat."

"I'm gonna miss you." Draper said, "In a lot of ways. I still have feelings for you, you know."

Angela stared at him, "I still have feelings for you too. But now wouldn't be the best time."

"There never is a best time." Draper replied.

Angela looked knowingly at him, "There's just so much going through my mind right now..."

"I won't force it then." Draper replied, "As I said I've got all manner of emotions going through me right now. I'm just so happy to see you again."

_Who am I kidding? I'm still in love with this woman. _Draper thought. _I never stopped loving her._

"Same here." Angela replied, she was almost positive she saw a twinge of sadness behind Carl's eyes, "Please call or write me. Don't be a stranger."

"I promise I won't wait ten years to try and call or e-mail you." Draper joked.

Angela couldn't help but smile at the remark before lightly putting her arms around him. Draper returned her hug.

"I'll hold you to that." Angela replied as they parted.

Watching the scene discretely were Ben Randall and Torpedo.

"Didn't know there was a past between Draper and Bennett." Randall said, "But I always suspected it the second the woman walked onto the Pit."

"Despite that past they did well on the assignment we had." Torpedo replied.

"So you really think it's a good idea to have Draper escort her back to Quantico?" Randall said.

"Of course, Master Chief." Torpedo replied, "It might help the man bring closure to that chapter of his life."

"Or it might not." Randall said.

"I could change the assignment. Put Cho or Strickland or..." Torpedo said.

"Sir, you know better than to backpedal from decisions." Randall said, "If you think Draper's the best man for the job and it will help him then I'm all for it."

---

"Is everything in order for the next blow?" Syndrome asked.

"Yes. My Eels have taken over the Al Ejaz tanker and have almost two thousand Heartless and as many Nobodies onboard." Cobra Commander replied.

"We've also altered the computer navigation and GPS systems of the tanker Islamabadi." Trelawney replied.

"We've also purposely leaked some information to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Reports indicate that they are stepping up their maritime patrols near Bandar Abbas, even reinforcing their naval assets in the area with vessels based out of Bushehr." Cobra Commander replied.

"What if the Iranians sink the Al Ejaz instead of the Islamabadi?" Trelawney replied.

"Either way they risk angering their neighbors, the Pakistanis. Both ships are Pakistani registered." Cobra Commander replied.

"And Al Ejaz shouldn't be fired on..." Xamot began.

"...Because it is already cleared to dock at Bandar Abbas." Tomax replied.

"Which means when its at the docks the Heartless will be released to create havoc at Bandar Abbas." Xamot and Tomax replied.

"Why Bandar Abbas, may I ask?" Trelawney replied.

"Well. If you must know. One of my most valuable operatives was detained by the Iranians after the incident with the Heidelberg Star. Zartan is vital for infiltrating select merchant ships." Cobra Commander replied.

_Idiot. Discussing secret plans of his organization like that. _Trelawney thought but said, "Unusually noble of your organization."

"Noble has nothing to do with it. Zartan is a valuable asset. The Eels will spring him from the Bandar Abbas interrogation center with the Heartless forming a screening and at the same time capturing more hearts for our uses." Cobra Commander replied.

"The Iranians' trigger happy habits of late are also playing right into our hands." Syndrome replied, "World opinion of their practices has crumbled and they are almost isolated in the international community."

Xamot said, "The United Nations are discussing..."

"...A sanction against Iran." Tomax added.

"This has the making of repeating the Tanker War of the 1980s." Xamot and Tomax replied together.

"What of the North Koreans?" Syndrome asked.

"Already taken care of." Destro added.

"Extensive Enterprises is continuing..." Tomax began.

"...financing the North Koreans' rearmament program." Xamot replied.

"While the North Koreans start their terror attacks in South Korea with their special forces troops, we'll keep rearming the North Korean People's Army before turning them loose on the Korean peninsula."

"Very well then. After the attack on Bandar Abbas I'll authorize the North Koreans to start their terrorist operations throughout South Korea..." Syndrome replied, "Oh and Mirage place a call to Reverend Stryker. I want to know how his plan to abduct Senator Shale at that Mutant Rights Rally in Orlando is going."

Mirage nodded silently and left the room.

"And one more thing, Trelawney. Your operatives were careless in letting that trace program get put into the files they downloaded from Area 51." Syndrome said.

"I'll see to it that they're reprimanded." Trelawney replied.

"No need. I had them disposed of already. But you have a mission to dispose of a certain Angela Bennett...not that you need coercing. I understand you have a very personal score to settle with her." Syndrome replied.

"Precisely. I already have a team ready to take her out when she reaches her home in Quantico..." Trelawney replied. _Get a grasp of Syndrome's whole scheme and then start to make inroads. There have got to be parties in this organization that are chafing under this cyborg brat. In the mean time stall him..._

Trelawney punched in a number in his Blackberry when he was alone.

---

Up Next: While COBRA strikes Bandar Abbas, the Praetorians attempt to exact revenge on Angela Bennett and Sorcerer for their roles in the Area 51 operation.


	4. Bandar Abbas

Bandar Abbas

Disclaimer: Same as before.

---

Airman First Class Vanessa Harris-Patel headed towards the communication center of the Pit. Kumar had the day off, clearing his lean, powerful arm from around her waistline didn't even make him stir. She smiled inwardly at the memory of the last night, no matter that Kumar felt exhausted, he certainly found his second wind when he saw her dressed up in that bikini. She inwardly praised herself for that particular investment. But she was running late. Thankfully she had managed to find parking in spite of all that.

She pulled her BDU cap off her head and headed for her communication intercept station. She sat down and started to compile messages.

"Mainframe. I've got a disturbing intercept here. It's a COBRA radio signal which means only one thing...begin." she said.

"Great job Airman Patel." Mainframe said.

"Harris, actually." Vanessa replied, "I usually use my maiden name at work so that I don't get confused with my husband."

"Oh. Sorry." Mainframe said.

"I'm also noticing some disturbing traffic coming from Iranian territorial. They're calling to scramble some fast boat unit." Vanessa replied.

"Airman Harris, great job. Keep your ears open for any more traffic." Mainframe replied. As he was talking Carl Draper walked into the room.

"Whoa Drape, what's with the civilian getup?" Strickland asked, as he was getting ready to sign for the radio codes for the day, "Ready for your day off already?"

"Nah. I'm about to fly to Virginia today. I'm taking Angela back to Quantico." Draper replied.

"Why are you going with her?" Strickland said.

"Relax Strick I'm not gonna leave the unit. I'm just escorting her because of a supposed threat the Praetorians made against her." Draper replied before making a beeline for the coffee pot.

From her station Vanessa chuckled. "Still on the coffee habit, sergeant?"

"Yeah." Draper replied.

"Are you kidding? The worst thing for Drape was when Beach Head wouldn't let us drink caffeinated beverages when we were first joining G.I. Joe. I'd never been around a grumpier old Jewish guy in my life..." Strickland replied.

"Ah stow it Strickland!" Draper replied as he poured himself a cup and walked out into the hallway.

"Doesn't Angela want any?" Vanessa asked.

"I asked. She said no way. Her taste of coffee at Area 51 was bad enough. And besides B.A.'s Coffee might not be good for the un-initiated." Draper replied.

"Considering when you drank it you didn't sleep for days." Strickland remarked, "I remember when you smuggled it out of the mess hall during Beach Head's six week coffee ban for our Initial Training. We all swore your heart was about to explode."

"I don't have _that_ bad of a coffee habit!" Draper replied.

"Who else do you know who sneaks coffee beans out and chews on them in the field?" Strickland replied.

Draper walked out of the room with an annoyed grumble about smart-assed young airmen to some more than mild laughter from Strickland and Vanessa.

---

Angela sat down in her seat in the 747's aisle. Carl had the window seat. "Hey, take the window seat..." Draper offered.

"It's OK." Angela replied.

"I insist." Draper replied, "A lot of elbow banging from beverage carts happens in the aisle."

Angela swapped seats with him and then the plane began to take off. "So what have you been up to since we went our separate ways?" Draper asked.

"Well. Sorcerer and I managed to take down Praetorian Headquarters. We thought Trelawney died when he was trapped in the building after its self destruct sequence was activated. We were wrong." Angela shivered.

"I guess that's why they want me escorting you back." Draper replied, "And why lifeline insist that Sorcerer stay at the Pit for his treatment."

She checked the newspaper she'd purchased with her cup of coffee and noticed the headline: **Iranians To Aggressively Patrol South Arabian Gulf. **

"Damn Trelawney." Angela said, "Why he threw his hat in with COBRA and Syndrome's little gang I don't know."

"That's why Hawk tried to argue for you to stay at the Pit earlier, for your own safety." Draper argued.

"I've faced the Praetorians before, Carl. Remember?" Angela replied.

"Vividly. You involved me in the fight ten years ago." Carl replied, "I remember saying I was willing to help you then, even to the point of giving up being a Combat Controller. That resolve is still there. If you want me to I'll put my resignation in on General Hawk's desk..."

"Carl, I see how you're needed by your team. I can't ask you to do that." Angela replied, "Even for me."

Draper nodded. Angela still was able to win that argument even ten years later.

"So what else had you been up to?" Draper asked.

"Well shortly after I regained my identity I became part of the FBI's computer crimes division. I actually enjoy my work." Angela replied.

"So what have you been up to since we were together?" Angela asked.

"That's a long story. First I graduated from Indoc and went through the Combat Control pipeline. I was just checking into the unit when 9/11 went down. Several of my buddies were going to Afghanistan while I was still stuck at Pope AFB. My call came in January 2002 and they sent me to Afghanistan for almost a year. Then I went to Iraq twice over before I got picked to go to this unit." Draper replied.

"That's rough." Angela said before she noticed a ridged white scar on the right side of Draper's neck, "Where did you pick that one up?"

"Afghanistan." Draper replied tersely. Angela knew not to push that one. That was a darker side of Draper she'd not seen in him ten years ago, the young man eager to prove himself at his goal of being a Combat Controller. There wasn't a seemingly haunted air to him.

_They weren't kidding about the Combat in Combat Control Technician._ Angela thought.

"I'm so sorry." Angela said.

"It's OK, you couldn't have known." Draper replied.

Angela's left arm brushed against his right arm. She smiled slightly noticing he still wore that same beat up brown leather A2 flight jacket he always wore when it was cold.

"Some things never change." Angela quipped.

"Excuse me?" Draper replied.

"I was just talking about that jacket. That's one of the little details I always will remember about you." Angela replied.

Draper smiled back, "It's my lucky jacket."

"It looks like it's been in a war or two." Angela replied.

"It was issued in Vietnam." Draper replied, "And I wore it a lot during my senior year of high school and afterward. It went through a few of my misadventures in college too."

Angela said, "You mean that fight you got into back in 1997?"Angela asked.

"How do you know about that?"Draper asked.

"Sorcerer." Angela asked.

"Why was he curious?" Draper asked.

"When I first met you I asked him to run a background check." Angela replied.

"Do you ask for background checks for all your dates?" Draper asked.

"Those were slightly different times." Angela replied, "I really didn't know who you were beyond what you told me and I couldn't really trust anyone."

"I understand. After the fifth or so time I read your letter." Draper replied.

"You didn't rip it up? I thought you'd tear it up or destroy it." Angela replied.

"Believe me the thought did cross my mind." Draper replied, "But it was all I really had left of you. I couldn't destroy that. I actually have re-read that letter so many times over the years."

Angela felt a stunned silence for a moment before she went to the lavatory. When she came back she noticed Draper was engrossed in a copy of Time Magazine with the headline about the latest Iranian aggression.

She sat down beside him before she started to fall asleep. Carl Draper turned when he felt the pressure of Angela's head against his left shoulder. He lifted the arm rest between them because it was digging into her hip. A stewardess came by and Draper quietly requested a blanket.

As he received the blanket he gently draped it over Angela's shoulders just below her neck. He was rewarded with a slight murmur and a sleepy smile. He smiled to himself, that even after ten years and a break up he still was able to get that reaction out of her.

---

"What does COBRA want with our land?" Walid Al-Baz asked as he smoked a cigarette.

"You know that there is nothing you can get out of me." Zartan said as blood dribbled down his cheeks.

"By Allah your Omnidroids destroyed my home city!" Walid replied and swung a rubber wrapped PVC pipe filled with metal ball bearings into Zartan's rib cage.

The Dreadnok said, "Perhaps you and your Pasdaran brothers should treat me better. Perhaps COBRA will be lenient."

Walid backhanded Zartan angrily, "Never. Every Iranian from the Ayatollah on down will not surrender to your demands jackal!"

"We will crush you! I will crush you!" Zartan said.

"No! You will not grind us down. Like our ancestors the Persians we stand proud and defiant." Walid replied.

"What was the death toll at Bandar Abbas again?" Zartan asked.

Walid kicked Zartan's knee with all the force he could muster. Zartan let out a yell and then laughed defiantly. He was definitely pushing the Iranian interrogator's buttons.

One thing Zartan knew that Walid Al-Baz didn't was that one of them only had a few hours left to live.

---

"Allah Akhbar!" Kasim Ibn-Farahnakian shouted as his Boghammar patrol boat raced towards the Islamabadi firing rounds from the boat's heavy machine guns.

The Islamabadi was riddled with holes down her port and starboard side from two strafing runs of other boats.

It was now his turn to attack. The boat raced forward, it's twin .50 caliber guns blazing into the vessel's prow and hull.

Moshed aimed the RPG-7 at the bridge of the vessel and fired a rocket at the bridge which exploded just below the pilot house.

"La Ilaha Ilah Allah!" came the triumphant shout.

The Islamabdi listed to starboard as two more Iranian fast boats came up her starboard beam firing recoilless rifles and heavy machine guns. The ship began to catch fire as fuel began to ignite from the Iranian tracer and incindiary rounds.

Kasim watched impassively as the massive Pakistani tanker began to roll over as his squadron of small boats raced away. Racing low from the mountains behind Bandar Abbas came an F4 Phantom.

Several sailors on the Iranian Boghammars cheered as the F4 dropped three 500 lb bombs onto the remains of the Pakistani tanker, sinking it to the bottom.

"Allah Akhbar!" came the shouts of triumph.

As the boats raced back towards Bandar Abbas their crews had no idea that they had just killed twenty-one innocent Pakistani mariners and that thousands of Heartless were inbound.

---

Vanessa kept her ears on the suspicious Iranian radio traffic. Someone was already monitoring the Iranians attacking the Islamabadi, but she was thoroughly convinced that the Iranians were destroying the wrong ship. In the background she could hear transmissions from the M/V Al Ejaz as it was docking at the port of Bandar Abbas. Something wasn't right. There was something suspicious about the master of the Al Ejaz and she wasn't certain but the accent of the man was wrong.

"What's wrong?" Mainframe asked as he headed over to where Vanessa sat.

"I'm picking up something from the Motor Vessel Al Ejaz. It's a Pakistani registered tanker pulling into Bandar Abbas, Iran." Vanessa replied.

"Explain." Mainframe said.

"Well, according to her manifest the owner is Abdul Al-Jahr Qaim. The man talking on that circuit does not sound like a Pakistani man in his late 50s." Vanessa replied.

At Mainframe's quizzical look she added, "One or two of Kumar's relatives come from Northern India and he has cousins in Pakistan. I know what Pakistanis sound like."

"I wasn't doubting you, Airman Harris, I just wanted to know how you arrived at that conclusion and..." Mainframe replied.

"Oh my God!" Vanessa exclaimed.

"What?" Mainframe said.

Vanessa turned up a dial patched to a nearby speaker. "COBRA La la la la la la la la!!!!" came the shout.

With that shout all hell broke loose at Bandar Abbas, Iran.

---

The Heartless and Nobodies raced from deep within the hold of the Al Ejaz. The surprised Iranian port guards opened fire with their AK-47 assault rifles.

One of them ran towards a radio and he began to contact his superiors. An Iranian guard outside the building was running backwards as he was shooting wildly at several charging Heartless.

"Back! Get Back! AAAGGHH!!!" he shouted as a fleeing truck smashed into him, spraying gore all over the place.

The Iranian border guard only managed to get a short distress call out before a raking scimitar-like claw from a COBRA-La Heartless ripped him from his left shoulder to his right hip.

One by one the Iranian border guards at the docks were overwhelmed and the Heartless streamed into the city, taking hearts as they streamed into downtown Bandar Abbas at midday. The sky was filled with glowing heart shapes as the Heartless descended like wolves upon lambs.

The fact that Heartless were ravishing the bazaars and shops of downtown was all that Sergeant Rashid Al-Qaim Baz of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Army knew as he set up his position just forward of his sector. He could see more soldiers below readying positions for a defensive line to contain the plague.

Through his optics Rashid could see a woman with a Shadow Heartless on top of her back. He sighted his Nakhijir rifle, a license built copy of the Russian Dragunov sniper rifle, on the creature and squeezed the trigger. With a loud crack the Shadow Heartless' head literally came apart as the 7.62x54 rimmed cartridge ripped into it.

His wife and six month old son were in the apartment complex where the Heartless were steadily advancing.

"Allah Akhbar!" he shouted as he engaged a Soldier Heartless pursuing a terrified child down an alley. The creature took the round just underneath the rim of its helmet.

Eight rounds in the magazine. Seven more magazines on his kit to reload. The Heartless crashed against the perimeter.

Now the rattle of assault rifles, light and heavy machine guns, and the boom of grenades could be heard. He sighted in on a COBRA-La Heartless before squeezing the trigger. CRACK! The creature fell down five feet from the nearby barricades.

Several more Heartless shook violently as they were caught in a torrent of fire from a PKM machine gun. The gunner was shooting steadily at Heartless that came into range, tearing them to shreds when the manhole cover behind him opened up. Out came two Neoshadow Heartless. Rashid acquired one of the creatures through his optics and squeezed off another round. The creature fell backward into the drainage system, falling on top of it's companion. Another soldier threw a grenade into the sewer tunnel.

"They're into the sewer system!" Rashid passed over his radio headset as he took aim at a Dusk that just twisted the neck of the grenade thrower.

With a loud crack the Dusk's brains splattered against a brick wall. The shooting was steady with screams coming into the air as the Heartless came in behind several units from the sewer tunnels.

A shrieking sound echoed just then and Rashid turned to see something he had not seen when the Heartless attacked Bandar Abbas before. The creature was jet black, with three glowing yellow eyes on an elongated and crested head with fanglike teeth. The creature's head was atop it's long neck which funneled down into a mantis-like body which walked on six legs shaped like the jabbing paws of a praying mantis. The symbol of the Heartless was prominent atop it's head ridge.

Several more of the 3 meter tall creatures were in company with more Heartless. Rashid snapped a shot at the creature before narrowly escaping a massive claw that stabbed into the building.

An Iranian soldier took aim with RPG-7 and squeezed the trigger. The rocket penetrated the Acklay-Heartless' side before the creature turned and with a roar swung another clawed leg that beheaded the RPG shooter.

Over his radio Rashid could hear the troop commander shouting. "Concentrate fire..."

The order was terminated by a shrieking roar and a loud scream. Several soldiers fled only to be picked off by marauding Heartless and Nobodies. Rashid picked off what Heartless and Nobodies he could, all the while dodging the Acklay-Heartless that smashed into any building he happened to fire from.

Another troop commander said. "Concentrate your fire on their bellies!"

Several Iranian riflemen, an RPG gunner and two machine gunners did so, killing one Acklay-Heartless and then another.

"Allah Akhbar!" Came the shout as the Iranians continued their fight over the city of Bandar Abbas.

---

"Ow..." Meghan Travis said as she felt tiny feet kicking inside her swollen abdomen, "I always knew I was gonna be a soccer mom."

Martin Travis smiled as he put his hand on his wife's belly before he kissed it and said jokingly, "Hey you, quit causing Mommy so much pain."

The baby kicked again and moved. "She's gonna be one difficult teenager." Meaghan remarked.

"He better be a black belt in some martial art or a soccer player." Martin joked.

"It's a girl. I'm positive." Meghan said.

"It's a boy. _I'm _convinced. Daddys know these things." Martin replied.

"Hey, who's pregnant here." Meghan replied.

"I guess we'll find out on the birth date. Like we agreed." Martin replied.

"True." Meghan said, as she smiled.

Martin was about to reply when his cell phone rang. He noticed the number read Ben Randall. "What's going on Master Chief?" Martin said.

After a brief pause Meghan saw her husband's face take that same expression. "Honey. I've just been called to the CSAR Command Center again."

"Be careful." Meghan said.

Martin replied, "I always am, sweetheart. I always am."

---

The aircraft touched down at Baltimore Washington International Airport as Angela yawned lightly as she awoke. She could feel the light airplane blanket just below her neck and knew Carl had put it there.

"You can go back if you want." Angela offered.

"I'll escort you back to your place and catch a cab back." Draper replied.

"If you want you can stay at my place for the night." Angela replied and then realized just what she had said, "On the couch or something..."

"I understand." Draper replied.

"I didn't mean to hurt you." Angela replied.

"I forgave you a long time ago." Draper replied.

Angela gazed at him thoughtfully. "Really?" Angela said.

"Back at Qatar." Draper replied, "And even before then to a point. I just wanted to know why you refused my help all those years ago."

"It would have broken my heart to see you lose your dream just like that." Angela replied.

"I'm just so happy to see you again." Draper replied as they walked into the terminal towards where Angela's red Ford Mustang was parked.

Angela started the car and they drove towards Quantico. "I can't believe all this is happening." Angela began.

"All what?" Draper replied as they listened to the radio.

"First of all this whole conspiracy with the Heartless and this bad guy known as Syndrome we know barely anything about." Angela replied, "And then we've got the Praetorians coming back, probably with me as a target. I know Trelawney hasn't forgotten me. He's probably going to try for me again."

"We don't even know if Trelawney's still alive." Draper replied.

"I'm almost positive he is." Angela replied, "And if he is, I'm a target again."

"Not if I have anything to do with it." Draper replied, "I'll be damned if he harms even a hair on your head."

Angela gave him a look that spoke of both concern and awe. Concern for the fact that he was willing to risk his life. Awe for that same reason.

"Even if it's not Trelawney the Praetorians don't like leaving loose ends." Angela replied.

"You and Sorcerer should be fine." Draper replied, "Sorcerer's still at the Pit recovering, thanks to Lifeline and Lina Chakram. And in your case I'm here as an escort and you've got the FBI nearby, this time not to arrest you."

"This time my identity is under lock and key." Angela replied.

"And your heart as well?" Draper replied.

"Carl, we've only just seen each other after ten years of separation. I don't think now is the best time to try and restart things." Angela replied.

"So you do feel something?" Draper asked. Angela looked back. Those piercing gray eyes of his always seemed to be able to sniff the truth out of her.

"I still feel for you." Angela replied, "It's not just as a friend, but something more. I just don't think we can just pick up where we left off."

"And I'm not asking you to do that." Draper replied, "I'd have to be a lunatic to think we could do that."

Angela knew in her heart there was still love there. She still felt feelings that never entirely faded regarding him, but damn it that had been ten years ago. She wasn't a fugitive on the run any more and he wasn't a raw recruit to Air Force Special Tactics. But the feelings were still there.

Draper felt it inside him. Those feelings for a woman who never entirely left his heart almost ten years ago.

"It's been a while and I'm really confused as well as happy to see you again." Draper replied.

"When you get to be our age there's always things." Angela replied.

"I still care." Draper replied.

"Let's take things slow this time." Angela replied.

"I understand." Draper replied.

---

Reinforcements had shown up to retake the docks of Bandar Abbas. Explosions and fusillades could be heard co-mingling with screams of human and Heartless alike. Block by block, building by building the Iranians were fighting, using tanks and APCs with heavy machine guns and even rockets.

The tactic of shooting the Acklay-Heartless hybrids in the underside with concentrated weapons fire had worked to thin the numbers a bit, but the marauding lesser Heartless and Nobodies below made concentrating fire difficult.

The building shook again and Zartan knew that his liberation was near. Already several of the Iranian guards at the facility had been pressed into defending the Quarantine Zone. They had a marginally higher chance of survival than Zartan's remaining captors were going to.

"See. Your precious city is about to be sacked of more hearts again." Zartan teased.

Walid Al-Baz angrily kicked Zartan in the ribs. Zartan coughed and let out a defiant laugh. The Iranian interrogator's face was a mass of contorted rage as he could hear the fighting outside.

A pall of dark smoke started to fall over various parts of the city of Bandar Abbas. And so were several guards at the facility where Zartan was being held.

Knives and silenced needle guns were stabbed or fired into throats and chests before startled guards even had an instant to react. The Eels moved silently through the facility and the first and only indication Walid Al-Baz had that they were there was when the door was smashed open.

Walid managed to fire a single shot from his 9mm pistol only to catch a needle gun round in the base of his throat. He fell to the ground, grabbing at the steel spine, gasping and spitting blood.

As Zartan was released he walked over to the interrogator, "It seems the death toll of Bandar Abbas was raised by one more soul..."

---

Angela stopped the car outside the house. "You're welcome to come in if you want." Angela offered.

"In a minute, I'm just going to make a phone call." Draper replied.

Angela smiled and went inside the house. Just then she felt the world go dark as a plastic garbage bag was tossed over her head.

"Miss me?" came the voice of Sean Trelawney, "You know what they say, eighty percent of fatal accidents happen in the house."

"Angela?" Came Draper's voice from outside.

"Carl!" Angela tried to scream through the bag only to be struck in the stomach. It let more air out of her lungs faster.

Draper reached into his jacket and extracted the H&K USP 9mm sidearm and crashed through the front door of Angela's house. There were five men in the room. Two of them were holding Angela by her arms and a third was holding a garbage bag over Angela's head while she struggled. One stood guard and a fifth was standing in front of Angela with a foam wrapped PVC pipe stuffed with ball bearings.

With the life of the woman he loved at stake Carl Draper did not hesitate. The guard was first to die when Draper fired three rounds into his chest and neck. The man with the PVC pipe quarter turned only to catch three more rounds to the face from Draper's weapon. Angela threw her head back with the last of her breath, scoring a good solid hit on Trelawney's nose with the back of her head.

One of the assailants closest to Draper let go of Angela only to be shot in the stomach and sternum.

Angela managed to break free of her assailant as she tore the bag off her head and went for her Glock sidearm. The Praetorian knocked Angela to the ground and they wrestled for control of the weapon.

The wounded Praetorian on the floor reached for his weapon, he was close enough to shoot Angela only to catch Draper's size 9.5 hiking boot complete with Vibram sole to the underside of his jaw.

A gunshot rang out. Then two more. Draper turned to see Angela shove the dead Praetorian off her when Trelawney turned to shoot her. Angela fired first, a single round that hit Trelawney in the right bicep. He bellowed and dropped his weapon, running from the house.

Draper turned to help Angela pull the near 190 lbs of dead Praetorian off her chest. "Are you OK?" Draper asked.

Angela sat up and groaned as she held her left side, "Ribs."

Draper checked the three remaining Praetorians, kicking two of them in the ribs before the third reached for his gun again. Draper stomped on the man's hand and aimed his sidearm at his head.

"Try it, fucker and I'll do a nice Bob Villa job to your face." Draper replied.

"We'll get you to the hospital." Draper replied as he took his cell phone out of his pocket with one hand to call the Pit.

The Praetorian looked up at him and Draper said, "Her, not you, asshole."

Angela gave him a warning look.

Angela got to her feet shortly after Duke, Snakeyes and Stalker appeared via the Mass Device. The trio began to police up the scene and got Angela and Draper safely back to the Pit.

---

The Iranians at Bandar Abbas scarcely had time to mourn their dead when another disaster hit. The Pakistanis were enraged at the Iranians' actions in the Persian Gulf, which included the destruction of the Islamabadi.

The death of twenty-seven Pakistani sailors was fresh on the mind of Lieutenant Mohammed Al-Fais as he and forty Pakistani soldiers crossed into Iranian territory. His older brother had been the first mate on the Islamabadi when the Iranians destroyed it. The garrison at Qila Safed had issued an order to attack Iranian outposts along the border at dusk.

Any second now the mortar section would open fire on the Iranian outpost and it would be the job of the infantry company to assault the outpost and flee back into Pakistani territory.

Mohammed Al-Fais' unit was the spearhead of Pakistan's revenge. The other three platoons were infiltrating behind his men towards the Iranian outpost. Al-Fais' men were in position when the mortars began to fire.

Through his field glasses he could see rounds exploding outside the perimeter fence and then slowly walking their way inside. Two Iranian soldiers who were walking out of a building were less than two feet away when a bomb exploded between them.

After the barrage lifted Al-Fais and the rest of the Qila Safed garrison began their assault. The Iranians were firing back intermittently. The surprise was total as the Pakistani soldiers advanced rapidly. There were a few casualties, mostly from the isolated pockets of resistance that remained.

Almost as soon and suddenly as they had appeared the Pakistanis raced across the border back to Qila Safed, back to bunkers and prepared positions to await the expected Iranian counterattacks.

---

"All things considered you got off lucky Agent Bennett," FBI Director Womack said via the video phone in General Hawk's conference room, "biometrics revealed that those four men were known members of a Praetorian erasure squad."

Angela felt goosebumps on her skin, the way she'd felt back in 1998 when her identity was erased and the Praetorians were always after her. But things were different this time, first of all as an FBI member her identity was better protected, second of all she took better precautions at protecting her own identity, and third she had allies at G.I. Joe to help including a fairly protective former lover.

Erasure squads were groups of people who specialized in making people disappear permanently. She knew had she not escaped from jail when her identity was stolen and she was officially Elizabeth Marx, a wanted cyber terrorist, she would have been murdered in prison by just such a squad.

She could see Carl sitting in the room with her, off to one side until Womack spoke. "Sergeant Draper, I thank you for saving the life of one of my best computer experts."

"Just doing my duty sir." Draper replied.

"Anyway, shortly after the three G.I. Joe operatives checked your house they found explosive devices in your basement. Enough to have burned any evidence you were murdered to the ground." Womack said.

"What are my options?" Angela asked.

"I was just getting there." Womack replied, "First off we could move you into the Witness Protection Program. Hide you for a while."

"I hate to say this, Director Womack, but I don't know if the Praetorians haven't infiltrated it." Angela replied.

"If need be, and I have spoken with his superiors, Sergeant Draper could accompany you. He seemed to have done a good job taking care of that Erasure Squad. And you two do have a rather agreeable history together." Womack replied.

Angela slightly reddened that the director brought up their past relationship. "And what's my other option?" Angela asked.

"I've drawn up temporary orders, if you'll accept them, to be G.I. Joe's FBI liaison." Womack replied.

"I like the second option better. The Praetorians would be insane if they attempted to infiltrate _this _base." Angela replied.

"It's settled then. You'll be working at the Pit as it's new FBI liaison, part of this anti-Praetorian task force that General Hawk has started. Womack out." Womack's face disappeared.

"Any information from the surviving Praetorian." Hawk asked Scarlet

"It would be a little easier to interrogate the guy if someone hadn't kicked him in the jaw so hard that the bone was fractured in two places." Scarlet replied.

"Hey the prick's lucky to be alive." Draper replied as everyone filed out.

Angela and Draper were the only ones left in the room.

"Feeling better?" Draper asked.

"Lifeline said my ribs were just bruised. I should take it easy for a few days." Angela said.

"Where do they have you staying?" Draper asked.

Angela read off an address on base housing.

"Hey." Draper replied, "You're my next door neighbor. If you want me to, I'll help you move in and get settled. Today's my day off anyway."

Angela smiled wanly, "Thank you."

---

"Twenty-five thousand hearts captured at Bandar Abbas. I'd call that a successful operation." COBRA Commander said.

"Strictly small scale." Trelawney replied.

"But we got our operative back." COBRA Commander said.

"With my help." Trelawney replied.

"We could easily have infiltrated Bandar Abbas without your stupid computer virus interference." COBRA Commander said, "And it's hard to believe you weren't able to eliminate a 5'6" brunette with five men..."

"She had help." Trelawney replied, his right arm heavily bandaged from the .40 caliber slug Angela had fired at him.

"Both of you stop your bickering now." Syndrome said, "Both of you pulled off yet another bit of chaos I intended to spread."

"Which was?" Trelawney replied.

"Don't you see, the Iranians and Pakistanis are going to war with another." Syndrome replied as he held up a newspaper whose headline read: **Pakistani Garrison Destroys Iranian Border Station. **

"The conflict has been escalating." COBRA Commander replied, "More border clashes are occurring along the border with Pakistan and Iran."

"This just in: **Iranian Aircraft Bomb Qila Safed.**" Destro added.

"Perfect." Syndrome replied, "More divisions and chaos."

Bummun Hien, a member of the North Korean Special Forces, stepped forward, "All our operatives are in place."

"Very well." Syndrome said, "Start your terrorist campaign in the South."

The North Korean acknowledged the order as Syndrome said, "Next order of business."

"The attack on the Pit." Trelawney replied, "Of course there is the matter of even infiltrating the virus into the Pit's mainframe. Especially the fact that Angela Bennett survived."

"No thanks to you." COBRA Commander sniped.

"Remotely introducing the virus won't be possible, since they expect the attack." Trelawney replied.

"That's where I can help." General Eddington said, he held up a USB drive.

"Who would place it?" Trelawney replied.

"I have an operative in place." General Eddington replied.

"But why attack the Pit to begin with? Going after Sorcerer and Angela again?" COBRA Commander said.

"We're just gonna distract the Joes for a few hours and also see what their defenses are like." Syndrome said, "We'll use a few Heartless and Nobodies as well as BATS for the operation."

"And what about this insider?" Trelawney asked.

"She's reliable." Eddington replied, "Let's just say she has a vested interest in serving us."

---

CPT Julie Atkins(1) stared at the thumb drive in her right hand. It had arrived via a telegram at a 24-hour diner after she received a phone call. Passing information to Eddington was one thing, but disabling various key systems and firewalls at the Pit? That could kill people.

"I won't do it." she began, as she spoke to the hooded figure outside.

"You agreed to serve us." The Hooded Figure replied.

"I-I can't just possibly kill several of my co-workers." Julie replied.

"Very well. Don't do it." The Hooded Figure replied, "Just turn around, walk away and return to your life. Just remember your boyfriend's heart is forfeit."

"You wouldn't." Julie replied.

"Would I?" The Hooded figure replied, "You agreed to help us in exchange for your boyfriend's heart. Or perhaps you would want to see how Dave continues to live as a Shadow Heartless..."

"OK. I'll do it. Just please don't lose his heart..." Julie replied as she walked away in the falling rain.

---

**To Be Continued: Next. The Pit comes under attack. **

Atkins is an Air Force Captain who appeared in the fic The Coming of the Foe and is an informer for General Eddington as well as a possible Friends of Humanity member.


	5. The Attack

The Attack

Disclaimer: Same as before.

* * *

"Hey Angela." Vanessa smiled as she walked into work.

"Good morning." Angela replied. She was getting used to working on the Pit, having been there for almost a month. True to his word Carl Draper had helped her move into her new house, which was actually next door to the house he and Senior Airman Faisal Ahmed shared.

Angela asked the young airman, "Are you feeling any better?"

"Not really." Vanessa replied, "Still feeling a little nausea. I just think it's probably stress."

"Hey. I'd go see Lifeline." Angela replied.

"You're right. I wonder what caused it though." Vanessa replied.

"You could be pregnant." Angela guessed.

"That's impossible." Vanessa said.

"When was the last time you had sex?" Angela asked.

"Lately Kumar and I have been so busy with work, the last time was almost a month..." Vanessa said.

"Go see Lifeline. I'll let Mainframe know."

"Thank you." Vanessa said.

---

"Hey Drape, what's shaking?" Kumar asked as he walked out of the SAR Office.

"Nothing really." Carl Draper replied as he headed into the office.

"How are you feeling?" Kumar asked.

"About what?" Draper replied.

"You know. Angela being here on the Pit." Kumar replied.

"I'm OK." Draper replied as he sipped another sip of coffee.

He went in to grab a couple folders at the office when 1LT Meaghan Travis walked in, wearing her maternity uniform. "Sergeant Draper, have you seen my husband?" Meaghan asked.

"Sorry ma'am, I've only just come in so I've not seen him anywhere." Draper replied, "But if I find him I'll let him know."

Carl walked out of the office only to see LT Travis following him. "Ma'am?" he said.

"I'm going to go to the Control Room." Carl replied, "I believe he might be over there."

"I'll join you if you don't mind." Meaghan replied.

"Not at all." Carl said as the elevator opened to reveal Angela Bennett.

"Morning." Draper said as he walked in.

Meaghan followed them into the elevator and introduced herself, "Meaghan Travis."

"Angela Bennett." Angela replied.

The two waited inside the elevator as it started up and then stopped violently. The lights flickered out.

"What happened?" Meaghan asked.

"I don't know." Angela said.

Draper took out his cell phone and called the Command Center.

"What's going on?" Angela asked.

"Do you want the good news first or the bad news." Draper replied.

"What's the good news?" Angela asked.

"The good news. They know where we are." Draper replied.

"And the bad news?" Angela asked.

"The Pit's under attack." Draper replied.

"By what?" Angela replied.

"According to Strickland before he hung up we've got the Heartless all over the Pit and we've got a mysterious computer attack." Draper replied.

Angela took out her laptop and plugged her air card into the USB port before turning her computer on. "Praetorians."

"And they're basically staying they want us to hold on. They'll come get us as soon as they've cleared this area." Draper replied, "We might as well make ourselves comfortable."

"Great." Angela replied.

"Ow..." came a groan.

"Are you alright?" Angela asked Meaghan.

"It's OK. I'm just trying to get comfortable." Meaghan replied.

"Are you sure?" Draper replied, as he tried to turn on his cell phone, "Damn it!"

"No signal?" Angela said, "It's OK. I've got my access on my laptop."

"I figure it's only a matter of time before the Praetorians shut off computer communications." Draper replied.

"Don't underestimate me." Angela replied testily.

"I wasn't saying I was doubting you. I just am digging the trench behind the command post." Draper replied as he tore open the elevator control panel.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Angela replied.

"Trust me." Draper replied as he pulled a pocket knife and a Leatherman Multi-tool from a pouch on his belt as he started to trace wires. He cut one wire to splice it only to receive a mild electrical shock.

"Carl!?" Angela shouted.

"I'm OK." Draper replied as he fiddled around with the wiring.

Angela continued typing away at the computer keys as Draper was messing with the wiring in the elevator panel. "I think I've got it...YOW!"

"What are you trying to do?" Angela replied.

"Once I get the wiring right the elevator intercom is gonna be a transponder." Carl replied.

"If you don't electrocute yourself first." Angela replied.

"Hey. I know what I'm doing." Draper replied, before thinking aloud, "One more twist and ZOUNDS!!!"

"Be careful!" Angela admonished.

"Let's see now." Carl said, "Guardian 6 this is Guardian 21..."

"Hey. It's Sorcerer." Jake's voice sounded, "I can hear you guys and see you through the camera."

"Great." Draper groaned irritably, "Kumar and the guys aren't gonna let me live this down for years."

"Ooh." Meaghan groaned.

"Are you OK?" Carl asked.

"Fine." Meaghan said weakly, "Just the baby moving a little."

"Damn!" Angela groaned, "This Praetorian bug is downloading files from the Area 51 mission."

Carl was about to reply when he was interrupted by a scream of pain from Meaghan.

"What's going on?" Carl asked.

"We have to get out of here now!" Meaghan said with tears in her eyes from the pain.

Both Angela and Draper saw the puddle on the floor where Meaghan was sitting. Her water had broken. The baby was coming.

---

"Hey! Captain Travis." Sorcerer said from his console, "I've got voice communications with the elevator."

"Nice job Sorcerer." Travis said.

"Don't thank him. Thank Sergeant Draper." Ben Randall said, and then said into the microphone, "Despite electrocuting himself three times he basically wired the elevator intercom into a giant transponder."

"What's going on?" Travis asked.

"Sir!" Sergeant Draper's voice echoed through the transponder, "We have a problem here. Your wife...she's gone into labor."

Thunderstruck for about a second Captain Travis turned and said to Senior Airman Strickland, "Get one of the guys up here, ASAP!"

"Captain Travis." Strickland said, "All our P.J.s are either on mission or in flight."

Travis got on the radio to one of the security squads, "See if you can't escort a medic over here, ASAP. We have a situation."

A few minutes later the security team showed up with Bree. "Captain Travis. I heard you have a problem."

"Yes, we have three people trapped in an elevator. One of them is pregnant and just went into labor." Travis replied.

"Let me guess, the pregnant woman is your wife?" Bree asked.

Travis nodded. "Captain, take care of the rescue efforts. I'll talk them through the delivery of your baby." Bree said.

"Status on reaction forces?" Travis asked.

"We've got all the base elements from the 188th Security Forces Squadron and the 392nd MP Company in action." Strickland said as he got on the radio, "I've got QRF fanning out into the affected areas..."

---

Meanwhile in the Pit's Command Center Surefire, an Army Lieutenant Colonel that was the base security officer walked into the area. He knew QRF teams from the US Air Force's 188th Security Squadron and the US Army 392nd MP Company were already responding.

"QRF's out sir." 1LT Douglas Bryant, US Air Force, said.

"Good." Surefire said. He'd been running reaction drills regularly with these men knowing an attack by COBRA or the Heartless or any number of terrorist cells was possible. Now he was certain all that training was going to pay off.

---

Staff Sergeant Evan Speyer, US Air Force, checked his M16A2 for a chambered round before he gathered his team around him. "Alright." he began, "We've had an assault by Heartless into the Pit. Numbers are presently unknown but they've gone after the command post, the communication facility, and Hangars One and Three. We're going to Hangar Three to reinforce our guys already there."

Speyer felt the ice build in his stomach. These twelve young men and women's lives were in his hands. He'd only just recently been promoted to squad leader. He put the tension somewhere else in the back of his mind as he signaled for his team to head out towards Hangar Three.

As they headed towards Hangar Three the squad could see several dead Heartless near the approaches to the hangar. Already the Flightline Security unit had pulled out of the overrun hangar and set up a cordon. The corpses of several dead Heartless that tried to rush to cordon lined the asphalt.

Second and Third Squads from the QRF were already there and he could see 2nd LT Colin Danvers making radio calls. He got close enough to hear what his flight leader was saying.

"Alright. Cordon's in place. We enter the building through the east end. Watch your sectors and

There was another airman in the stack. Staff Sergeant Harold Cho, one of the PJs from the CSAR unit that had just stood up on the base. Somehow it made Speyer's pulse drop a little to have one of those uber-combat medics in the stack with him.

The team broke into the hangar and Speyer heard the gunshots as the first team came into contact with several Heartless. As he broke into the hangar he could several dead Shadow and Neoshadow Heartless.

---

"Oh dear God, the baby's coming?" Draper asked.

"No you idiot! I just sprang a leak! Of course the baby's coming!" Meaghan snapped as a contraction hit.

"When do you think it'll be clear enough to get maintenance down here? Or get Kumar or one of the P.J.s down here." Draper replied.

"We don't have an answer yet. Security's still fighting the Heartless over the building." Randall said as the sounds of gunshots echoed, "You two will have to take care of the delivery."

"Master Chief, not that I don't trust you but is there a medic up there." Angela asked, "Preferably a

female."

"I'm here." Bree's voice replied, "How long ago did Lieutenant Travis' water break?"

"About twenty minutes ago." Draper shouted back.

"OK. We need to get her into the birthing position." Bree said.

Angela put her computer down and helped assist Carl with the task before she got back to her computer. She opened a new internet window and typed the word childbirth into Google.

"Now I need to know how far she's dilated." Bree said.

"How do I do that?" Draper asked.

"Check the cervix." Bree said.

"You want me to do _**what!?**_" Draper replied as he realized where the conversation was headed.

"Sergeant Draper. We need to know how far LT Travis is dilated so I can ascertain how far along in the birthing process she is." Bree replied.

_Great. Captain Travis is gonna have my ass._ Draper thought as he lifted up Meaghan's skirt to observe the area.

"Oh please," Angela quipped, "It's not as if you haven't seen it before."

"I don't recall you being pregnant nor us being trapped in an elevator." Draper replied as he observed the area before saying: "I'd say between seven and a half to nine centimeters but I don't happen to have a tape measure handy so I can't be sure."

Angela had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. The look that Meaghan gave him would have burned a hole through the elevator wall, the concrete wall, and through the next three buildings nearby.

"Shouldn't you be the one doing this?" Carl replied.

"Why me?" Angela said.

"You're a bit more qualified in this department than I am!" Draper replied.

"Me? Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean that I know a lot about giving birth." Angela replied.

"Will both of you shut up and help me!" Meaghan shouted as another contraction hit.

"OK what the hell am I supposed to do now!?" Draper replied.

Angela opened another window on her computer and Google searched Childbirth. "Be sure she breathes and pushes." Angela replied.

"OK. Breathe. Push..." Draper said.

"What the hell do you think I've _been _doing Sergeant!?" Meaghan replied.

"Thank Google for making things sound so simple." Carl groaned.

---

Senior Airman Artie Wayland held his GAU-5 carbine at the ready as the breacher from the base's 392nd MP Company smashed down a barricaded door with the hooligan tool, a large crowbar on steroids. The stack of military policemen in front of him stormed into the room. Artie knew that Heartless were unlike human adversaries. Most of them didn't have projectile attacks but they tended to sneak up close to you until you were too close to raise a weapon before pouncing. Those damn Nobodies were worse. If they survived first encounters they tended to learn fast.

He saw a Dusk coming from a hole in the ceiling and fired several shots. The Dusk shook like it was being electrocuted and let out a strangled and feral cry of pain before hitting the ground, spraying grayish blood all over the place. Had he not been glancing upward the Nobody would have leapt on top of his head and snapped his neck.

"Nice shooting Brooklyn." Staff Sergeant Dan Kowaleski, US Army shouted.

"I'm from Manhattan!" Wayland protested. Damn Army wiseasses. Bad enough that his own Air Force buddies, and to boot non-PJ and non-CCT guys, were calling him the new nickname but now these Army pukes...

"Brooklyn! Watch your six!" PFC John Winters shouted as he gunned down a Creeper Nobody that had come out from a hole in the floor with the shotgun.

,The creature fell dead, minus its head as Winters reloaded his shotgun.

There was a groan from further into the office. "Sarge!" came the shout one of the MPs, a big black guy, Private Turner that everyone called Queequeg.

Wayland raced over to find a female soldier, one of the supply chicks. He felt sickened when he realized that it was Specialist Abigail Callen. Since he'd gotten to the base he'd been trying to ask her out, to the point that it was something that everyone else gave him grief over.

He could see she had a bloody but not threatening head injury and that she was holding her side. That was the more worrying injury and her hands were on top of it. "Abbi. Hey I need you to move your hands out of the way..."

She weakly complied and Artie noticed that there was a what looked like a dart of some kind in her side, just below the ribs. He packed gauze around the wound and bandaged it. He wasn't going to take the object out. It'd do more damage than anything else and Abbi would bleed to death.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" Artie asked.

He checked her hands and noticed that there were small cuts on them. Characteristic of self defense wounds. He bandaged those and the head wound as Specialist Dan Kaplan was calling in a medevac.

"Thanks Brooklyn..." Abbi said.

"You're welcome." Artie said, "Hang in there, you're gonna be fine..."

"My head hurts..." Abbi said, "I just want to go to sleep."

"Abbi. I know it sucks but stay awake." Artie replied, he had to keep her engaged, keep her conscious, "Tell me where you're from."

"I'm from San Francisco, California." Abbi said.

"Nice." Artie said. He could hear the ambulance outside and saw the EMTs rushing in. He helped them get Abbi onto the gurney and she clasped his hand, "Hang in there OK?"

"OK." Abbi said weakly.

Artie raced back deeper into the room as the MPs were engaging the Heartless and Nobodies that overrun the Motor Pool.

---

"I-I don't think I can do this anymore." Meaghan said. It had been over five hours since her water had broken and she was spent.

"Oh come on! That's crap!" Draper replied, "You're a Travis. Too stubborn to give up."

"Martin!" Meaghan panted after a push.

In the command center Travis damn near tore Bree's hand off to grab the microphone, "I'm here honey. You're doing great."

"That's easy for **you **to say you asshole!" Meaghan screamed as another contraction hit home, "You're not the one giving birth! I swear if I had known that damn book would have lead to _**this!! **__I would have hit you over the head with the damn thing you bastard!!_"

"It was a paperback honey." Travis replied.

Draper tried desperately to hold in his laughter but it came out of his nose in a snorted chuffle.

"What the hell are you laughing at Draper!? Quit gawking and get this damn thing out of me!" Meaghan screamed with another contraction as Angela took her hand and gently rubbed her hair for support.

"Yes ma'am." Draper gulped.

"I swear Angela. Men are completely and utterly u-uu-useless! The only thing they're good for is continuing the species." Meaghan said with another push.

Draper thought about some wise remark but held his tongue despite the fact that his half of the species was being verbally eviscerated.

"I'm sure not all men are that bad." Angela remarked.

"The only ups and downs in the relationship they care about take place between the sheets...." Meaghan said as another contraction hit and she squeezed Angela's hand hard. Angela had to stifle screaming herself.

"I can see the head!" Draper remarked.

"OK. She's crowning." Bree's voice came, "You need to wipe the amniotic fluid from the baby's face with a clean cloth and some water."

"Best we can muster is a water bottle." Draper remarked, "But the good news is I haven't opened it yet."

"Do what you can." Bree said, "You also need a string to tie off the umbilical cord and something to wrap the baby in."

Draper unbuttoned his DCU top and held it out ready to receive its special cargo. The cries of the laboring woman were echoed by the cries of the tiny being that had just emerged from its mother's body.

Angela took a shoe string from her right sneaker and handed to Carl who tied off the umbilical cord.

In the control center tears of joy freely flowed down CPT Travis' face as he watched the baby being cradled into Sergeant Draper's arms.

"Nicely done you two." Bree said, "Do we have a little girl or a little boy?"

"Congratulations sir and ma'am, you have a daughter." Draper said to the camera.

"Welcome little one. I'm your Mommy." Meaghan said as Carl put the baby, wrapped in his DCU top, into Meaghan's arms.

"Have you and Martin thought of a name?" Angela asked.

"We agreed that if it was a boy he'd be Harvey. Brigit for a girl." Meaghan said as she held her finger in front of the baby's face as her tiny hand reached up to grab it, "What do you think little one, do you like being called Brigit?"

As the baby cried again the sound of boots landing on the roof of the elevator could be heard. Draper aimed his sidearm at the access hatch and immediately lowered it when he saw Kumar Patel's face .

"Kumar. I've never been happier to see your ugly face." Draper replied.

"Dude. Things are starting to wind down." Kumar said, "We've retaken most of the base. The Motor Pool is the last area we need to take. It's almost secured."

"Pleasant news." Draper replied.

"Maintenance should have you guys out of here in another twenty minutes." Kumar said, "Bree sent me to check on the baby."

"Sure we've got room for one more." Angela quipped as Kumar climbed into the elevator. He disconnected his climbing harness and went to do a checkup on the baby.

"Hey little miss..." Kumar said as he smiled as he checked on the infant. The baby grabbed hold of Kumar's finger as he did his examination.

Despite himself Draper smiled, "Beautiful isn't it?"

Angela smiled, "Yeah. We make a good team don't we?"

"I agree." Draper replied, "Just next time we work together and it involves delivering babies you're designated midwife."

"I guess we're not seeing any baby Draper's in the near future." Angela smirked.

"We could. But I'm insisting that we deliver in a hospital or with a qualified midwife." Draper replied.

Kumar's eyes widened. "Holy shit."

"Kumar. There are babies and ladies present." Draper remarked.

"Are you two back together?" Kumar asked.

"No." Both Angela and Draper said simultaneously.

_It was kind of a turn-on to see him be such an attentive if amateur midwife though. If we ever did have a baby...Easy easy. It's too early to be thinking about restarting the relationship again. _Angela thought. _But it's an attractive thought._

Draper knew that Angela was deep in thought about something, he just had no idea what that something was. "Angela?"

"I'm fine. Just doing a little thinking..." Angela replied.

"About what?" Carl asked.

---

"Things are really going to hell." Bob Parr groaned as he read the newspaper. The headline read: **Iranian Aircraft Attack Pakistani Border. **

CNN showed footage of Iranian fighter bombers dropping bombs into a Pakistani town. The line across the bottom of the screen stated that thousands of people on both sides of the Iranian-Pakistani border had fled their homes.

Bob and Helen were at the Pit while Dash and Violet were at school and Xavier, Beast, Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Wolverine were there.

"Agreed. It appears the Organization's goal of trying to incite chaos and divide the world is working." Xavier said.

"Look at this..." Helen said.

Footage of an Iranian flak battery shooting down a Pakistani Q5 fighter-bomber could be seen on Al-Jazeera.

"Allah Akhbar!" the shout of the Iranian anti-aircraft gunners could be heard. Moments later three artillery rounds from the Pakistani side landed on their position and the Al Jazeera screen went dark.

"The Iranian delegation has placed blame solely on Pakistani leadership." The BBC reporter was saying, "Fighting has continued to intensify over the last few weeks. Neither Iranian nor Pakistani forces have made significant gains. Though no official reports have been released the death toll is estimated to be in the tens of thousands on both sides."

---

It felt like being released from a jail cell when they were finally out of the elevator. The EMTs were already waiting and put Meaghan onto the stretcher still carrying the baby.

"Excuse me. Pardon me. Let me through damn it!" the sound of Captain Travis could be heard as he barreled his way through the crowd.

"Martin. I want you to meet Brigit Charlene Travis..." Meaghan said as she held her baby in her arms,

"Sir. Respectfully, next time you decide to have a baby could you make sure I'm at least three states away." Draper remarked as they all came out of the elevator.

"You're out of uniform, aren't you sergeant?" Travis joked.

"Yes sir. But for a good reason." Draper replied.

Travis smiled as he saw his daughter, "I couldn't agree more..."

"Go with your wife, sir." Randall said, "Chong and I will police everything up around here."

Needing no encouragement Travis climbed into the ambulance with his wife.

---

Kumar headed into the communication center of the Pit to see Vanessa. "Hey sweetie are you alright?" he said.

She smiled wanely, "I'm fine. Just still feeling a little sick."

"Angela did say you could go home, didn't she?" Kumar said.

"Yeah. I just wanted to close a couple things up." Vanessa said as she turned her computer off.

"Did you see the doctor?" Kumar asked.

"Yeah. Before the attack." Vanessa replied.

"What's wrong?" Kumar asked.

"Kumar," Vanessa began, her brown eyes almost liquid and shining, "I'm pregnant."

Kumar's eyes rolled into his head and he promptly hit the ground just as Benjamin Randall walked into the room.

"Any reason why I've got an airman unconscious on the deck, Harris?" Randall replied.

"He just got some news, Master Chief." Vanessa said.

"Which was..." Randall replied.

"I'm pregnant." Vanessa replied.

Kumar sat up just then. "Congratulations, Patel, you're a Dad."

" My God!" Kumar said and threw his arms around Vanessa's neck.

---

Some time later when things had calmed down Angela stood outside on the veranda of the Pit's communication center. "Hey. What are you still doing here?" came a voice.

Angela turned to see Carl Draper standing there. "You changed your shirt." Angela observed.

"Well, seeing how Captain Travis' baby managed to soak up my DCU top, I had to break a new one out." Draper replied.

"That was something else, wasn't it?" Angela observed.

"I know." Carl said.

"If you ever decide not to make the Air Force a career you could go and be a midwife." Angela joked.

"Absolutely not!" Draper replied.

"Why not?" Angela teased, "You could say on your resume that you delivered a baby in the middle of an attack by the Heartless while trapped in an elevator..."

"An experience I never want to repeat ever again." Draper replied.

"It got me thinking too." Angela said.

"Really?" Carl asked, "About what?"

"You're not gonna laugh?" Angela asked, regarding him with a brown eyed gaze.

The darkness and the dilation of her eyes made them seem almost doe-like. Draper reflected that the name Angela was definitely an appropriate name for such an angelic beauty.

"I couldn't..." Carl replied.

"Well. Seeing Meaghan give birth today got me thinking about things." Angela said, "Like how I'm not in my twenties anymore and then my biological clock is ticking..."

"Angela, how could you think I'd be such an insensitive clod as to laugh at something like that. I understand you're worried now about your biological clock and about having a baby of your own." Carl began.

"I don't mean I want one right this minute, Carl. But it got me thinking about having a child" someday." Angela replied.

Taken aback Carl said, "I still love you, remember."

"Carl. I never doubted that." Angela replied, "But there's also so much we've got to worry about right now. The Praetorians coming back and with Trelawney trying to kill me every time I turn around. The Heartless and God knows who else Syndrome's aligned himself with now..."

"I know. And I'm honestly scared too." Carl said, he bit back the temptation to add honey on the end of it.

"It's just so much to think about right now." Angela said.

"So what do you think _we_ should do about it?" Carl said.

"It's just so much that we're worrying about right now." Angela replied, "I just don't know about restarting us just yet. I mean a relationship isn't like a computer. You can't reboot a romance."

She saw that she might have said the wrong thing, "Carl, I still love you too. I'm just saying maybe we should take it slow for the time being."

"I can live with that." Carl replied.

She stepped closer to him and lightly kissed his lips. Draper returned the kiss. A small, light kiss, but one that spoke volumes of promises between two people. He could feel her fingers digging into the fabric of his sleeves and pressing into the skin underneath. His own hands felt at the fabric of her shirt at her upper arms.

After they broke the kiss they looked at each other for a brief moment, locking eyes. Angela was the first one who spoke, "Please be safe out there? It would break my heart to lose you."

"Angela. If anything I have one more reason to come back from missions in one piece." Carl replied.

"Let's take this one slow. OK?" Angela replied, "I really want it to work this time."

"So do I." Draper said, "But as long as I don't see any more dear Carl letters in my jacket pocket or anywhere else I don't see us having issues."

Before Angela could reply the sound of footsteps heading towards them could be heard, "Hey Agent Bennett?"

They both turned to see Arcade of the Misfits heading right for them.

"Uhm. Sorry to interrupt..." the kid said quietly.

Angela disentangled herself from Carl's arms and he gave her an understanding look. "What's going on?"

"Uh we have a situation here we could use your help with." Arcade replied.

"I'll be right there." Angela said and she and Carl gave each other one more parting look before heading downstairs to her car.

---

"So the operation was a success?" Syndrome asked.

"We were able to download what information that G.I. Joe has on us." Trelawney replied.

"Yet you still failed to kill their biggest source of information on you." Cobra Commander snidely added, "Yet again your vaunted Praetorians couldn't dispose of one small brunette female."

"At least my organization isn't reduced to stealing toilet paper and robbing liquor stores to make ends meet." Trelawney added, "And Angela Bennett will be dealt with in time."

"How? The Pit is much more heavily guarded." Cobra Commander replied.

"A matter of leverage. Even when she regained her identity she was unable to ascertain the whereabouts of a college professor by the name of Evan Bennett." Trelawney replied.

"And this Evan Bennett being...?" Cobra Commander replied.

"Her father." Trelawney replied.

"Pfah. Let's not forget that this is the second time you've failed to kill Angela Bennett and she could be a formidable threat to your operation. The Pit's its defenses were able to repel your attack by the Heartless far better than Bandar Abbas was." Cobra Commander replied.

"Which by the way was one well executed operation." Syndrome said, "Not only did COBRA recover an important operative, but we added another ten thousand hearts to our collection from attacking Bandar Abbas."

"The Iranian and Pakistani conflict is in full swing." Cobra Commander replied, "As predicted it's creating massive instability in the region and providing more and more hearts to our cause."

In the corner of the room the CNN broadcast on the small TV played, "The death toll continues to rise into the tens of thousands as Iranian and Pakistani forces fight along the border. Neither side appears to have any clear objective. Attempts to bring Tehran and Islamabad to the negotiating table have failed and fears of possible escalations to nuclear conflict exist."

"And the Israeli-Palestinian conflict escalation was an equally brilliant scheme." Destro added.

"In other news today, Israeli forces have gone into Gaza yet again. The death toll on both sides continues to rise..." the CNN newscaster continued.

"And let us not forget that we have the issue of GC-161. Not only are the Xavier Institute forces poking around the area." General Eddington added, "But we also have Magneto's team. The operative Pyro has been spotted in the area."

"That chemical could be useful for my operations. The individual contaminated by the GC-161 spill years ago would be invaluable to our operations. Especially for genetic testing." Syndrome added.

"We'll do everything we can to try and assure that she winds up in your hands..." a blue skinned woman said as she walked into view.

"Well, Mystique it's nice of you to join us." Cobra Commander said sarcastically.

Mystique said, "Having to nurse Zartan back to health was not in the agreement I signed..."

"So sue me." Cobra Commander replied.

"Dr. Mindbender." Syndrome said to change the subject, "Any reports on that latest hybridization of Nemesis Enforcer's DNA with the Heartless?"

"So far it's only in its prototype stage. But the results are rather promising." Mindbender added.

"Good." Syndrome replied.

"But I would like some GC-161 samples. I believe it is the missing link to creating the new Nemesis Heartless." Mindbender replied.

"Consider it done." Syndrome added.

---

END.

What did Angela get asked to do by Arcade? What is this GC-161? The answers will come in the latest chapters of Secret Agent Forge...


End file.
